Yours to Hold
by UnchainedHeart
Summary: Morioka Nao is taken in by her uncle when her parents and siblings die in a car accident. After losing a bet with her uncle, she devotes herself to becoming the perfect adopted daughter. However, when a classmate invites her to the Host Club one day after school and she reports this visit to her uncle, being the perfect daughter suddenly takes on a new meaning.
1. Chapter 1

I closed my eyes, blocking out the sound of the crowd from my ears. This competition, it was vital that I placed. If I lost it would be the end of everything. I could not allow my nerves to get the better of me. That meant ignoring the crowd, and ignoring the fact that I knew he would be sitting in the stands.

My uncle, soon to be adoptive father.

"Morioka Nao."

I slowly drew a deep breath, then exhaled before opening my eyes. They immediately settled on the gym floor before me. I couldn't make a single mistake.

There was no one here but me.

After taking the few steps left between me and the mat, I was ready to begin. I gave a short bow then placed my hands above my head. Sliding my eyes shut once more, I reminded myself that I'd practiced until the movements were drilled into my body. I wouldn't have to think, just move.

The music started, filling the gym with the relaxing notes. I began my motions, smoothly flowing from one to another. The further I got into the routine, the more I felt myself begin to relax. A smile found its way to my lips as I swiftly leap forward, allowing my feet to touch the mat so that I was an inch from the outer line. My eyes flickered open as I bent into the next motion.

At that moment I saw him. My uncle's eyes met mine, the cold blue drilling those condemning emotions into my thoughts. I actually flinched, stumbling in my steps. I could hear a gasp from the crowd. A half-beat later I was back into the routine, but that was enough.

I knew that I wouldn't get the place I'd been aiming for.

I wouldn't be participating again after this event.

_**Ten months later**_

"Nao! Are you ready?"

I flinched, staring at the uniform laid out on my bed.

"Not yet," I called back, stepping forward to pick up the disgustingly yellow dress. Why did it have to be this color?

"I will not allow you to be late," Uncle Harou commented from the other side of my door. "Now that your adoption is official, you are not simply representing yourself at that school. You are representing the entire Morioka clan. I expect you to uphold that title."

"Yes, Oji-san," I answered, slowly beginning to dawn the dress.

"Otou-san," he corrected immediately. "In public you will refer to me as Otou-san. You are my daughter now."

"Yes… Otou-san."

"Be ready in ten minutes. The car is already outside and waiting."

Biting back a sharp response, I simply agreed and finished dressing. Uncle didn't handle back talk very well. Nor did he handle lateness well. Two things that I had a bad habit of. In the time I'd been living with him, which was almost a year now, I'd begun to pull these things under control.

Once I'd finished, I paused in front of the mirror, studying my appearance. Uncle didn't like sloppy looks anymore than he liked tardiness. I had to be perfect. My chestnut-brown hair fell just to my shoulders in slightly curly strands, although none of them were out-of-place. Chocolate brown eyes stared back at me, my face clear and natural, no make-up being easier for me to manage now that I didn't have a servant.

Uncle didn't believe in allowing others to do work this simple for you, no matter how well off your family may be.

My uniform, a yellow dress, washed out my skin making my slightly pale tone seem almost sickly, causing me to grit my teeth as I stared at it. That was the main reason I hated the color, yellow just didn't fit me. Shaking my head, I grabbed a cream-colored hair clip to make sure my hair would stay out of my face. Once that was on, I stepped away from the mirror to grab my things and start out the door.

I could feel Uncle's eyes on me when I reached the end of the hall. I knelt by the door, slowly pulling my shoes on. I couldn't help but test his patience by going about it as slow as possible without being suspicious.

"Do you have club activities today?" he asked instead of commenting on the time as I had expected him to.

I turned my attention to him in surprise, thinking over the schedule in my mind.

"No, I don't believe so."

"Very well. I'll be dining with business partners, so I won't be here later. I expect to hear that you practiced in the dojo since your club isn't meeting."

I simply nodded, raising so that I was standing straight and then giving him a short bow.

"I will make sure to do so. Goodbye, Otou-san."

Uncle studied me with narrowed eyes. His glasses he'd only recently acquired were reflecting the light, but I could see the skepticism behind his expression. He wasn't sure whether my respectful tone was real. I bit back my response to this expression and simply straightened, turned my back to him, and exited the door.

* * *

"It's them!"

I glanced up from my books as girls in the class began squealing about something. My eyes quickly found the reason, two boys that had just entered the classroom. Some part of me commented on the fact that this happened all the time, while the other part of me grew more and more annoyed with the impossibility of studying with all this noise.

I closed my eyes for a moment to work on blocking it out before returning my eyes to the books. If only those two weren't in my class…

Soon after their arrival Sensei walked to the front of the room and started class. Much to my relief things quieted down immediately.

* * *

"Are you going to practice, today?"

I paused, one hand poised with a book over my bag. At that same moment my eyes flickered up to the person who had spoken. It took me a full two minutes to recall the girl's name, Akamatsou Chie, let alone get over the fact she'd spoken to me.

After all, not only was Chie one of the most popular girls in my class, but she also happened to be one of the few ones that I could actually hold a conversation with. The only problem was that Chie, when we didn't have classwork to talk about, only discussed one or two topics, what boy she was currently interested in and what she was going to do after school was over. Neither one of those usually involved things that I wanted, or cared, to know about.

"Akamatsou-san," I greeted, going back to my previous occupation.

She gave a small sigh, placing a hand on my desk as I reached for the other book I would be taking with me.

"I was wondering if you were going to practice today," she said slowly.

After I'd placed the book in my bag, I looked to her again. Her blue eyes were focused on me and her face settled in some sort of expectant expression.

"There are no club activities," I answered, settling the last book in place.

"Then you're free?"

Now there was some sort of hopeful tone to her voice. Suspicion started to form in my mind.

"I plan on going home to practice."

"But you're free right now," Chie stated, watching me as I slung my bag over my shoulder.

Irritation flickered through me as I looked up at her, noting to myself that this annoying girl was at least half-a-foot taller than me. Although, to be honest, that wasn't her fault. I was smaller than most people.

"Yes," I replied.

Just as I'd begun to step around her, Chie placed a sweet smile on her lips and grabbed my arm. It was all I could do not to simply throw her off as I would have done a guy. Did she think that I was going to just do whatever she wanted like most of her friends did?

"Then you should come with me!"

In response I gave her a withering look and tightened my hand around the strap of my bag. That urge to throw her was getting stronger.

"No."

"You haven't even heard where I'm going yet," she complained, not moving her hand. "My other friends are all out today-"

Other friends? I wasn't her friend. My knuckles had turned white from how tightly I was gripping my bag. Just because we'd said a few sentences to each other didn't make us friends.

"-and I really don't want to skip out on my appointment at the club. At the same time, I can't go by myself, that'd be too embarrassing. So you could come with me and everything would be fine!"

I gritted my teeth, still resisting the urge to throw her. It was then that I realized that this situation could prove to my advantage. As much as I disliked the idea of attending some random club, this girl claiming to be my friend would be good. Harou had been complaining recently about how I, a representative of the Morioka family, didn't have any female friends. If it was reported to him that I was late coming home because I'd been assisting a 'friend' …

"Okay," I said suddenly, interrupting her attempts at persuasion.

"What?"

Chie looked shocked.

"I said okay," I replied irritably. "What club are you dragging me off to?"

Ignoring the tone of my voice, she gave me a bright smile and seized my hand with her own. This time it was easier to keep myself from ripping my hand away.

"Thank you so much, Nao-chan! And that should be obvious, we're going to the Host club!"


	2. Chapter 2

By the time we reached the music room I was deeply regretting agreeing to this scheme of hers. It didn't matter if she had an appointment with one of the boys, I couldn't afford to be caught dead in a place like this! My uncle, despite his wishes for me to have some friends, probably wouldn't approve in the least of this host club, I remembered, consisted of seven gorgeous guys, well, six and a kid. They spent their club activity time entertaining girls who had nothing better to do but stop and ogle them. I'd have been better off going home and taking those hours of kendo practice I would have.

"Who's your favorite?" Chie asked suddenly, pausing outside of the doorway where there were dozens of girls milling around. "I mean, the appointment is already booked so it's not like you can choose if its someone other than the one I chose, but if you tell me then I can set you up for another time!" she gave me a pleased smile as I pretended to be giving the question thought. "I'm a regular, so I've even gotten Ootori-kun to give me a discount a few times. I'm sure I could get him to do the same for you on your first appointment!"

I'd rather be struck by lightning and burned at the stake.

"I'll give it some thought. I've never really paid attention to them before," I replied honestly.

Chie's eyes looked like they were about to bug out of her head.

"Really? Honestly?" she questioned, her tone full of disbelief. "Two of them are in our class! How could you not notice?" At that same moment she clasped her hands together and tilted her head back with what I guessed was supposed to be a pitying sigh. "They're so handsome, I don't know _how_ you couldn't notice."

Taking a deep breath, I counted to ten in my head. Now I remembered why I'd never considered becoming friends with the only girl who consistently tried to talk to me. She was crazy and obsessive and over the top. Although, I guess you could use that to describe most of the girls in this school.

If it wasn't for the fact that my uncle had forced me to transfer here I'd drop out in a heartbeat. Just standing here made me feel like I was losing IQ points.

"I've been studying," I answered once I knew my voice would come out calm. "We are third years after all. The exams aren't that far off."

Chie pouted, but didn't bother to respond to that. After all, I was rather certain that she wasn't concerned about those. Knowing her she planned on simply depending on her parents until she married some rich CEO's son and had herself set for life. As all of this ran through my mind, the squeals of the girls got louder. It was at that time I realized the door into the music room was opening... _great_.

"Who did you say we were meeting with?" I mumbled under my breath as I was shoved forward by the crowd. It was the best I could do not to turn around and smack some sense into the girls behind us.

"I didn't," Chie answered, standing on the tips of her feet as the other girls rushed the hosts.

The seven hosts were posed in the center of the room, each in some position while simply wearing their pastel blue school uniforms. As I studied them, trying to figure what on earth about them happened to be driving these girls crazy, Chie suddenly excitedly began tapping on my shoulder. I once again had to resist the urge to slap away her hand.

"There, that one," she announced, pointing at the mentioned target.

My eyes followed her prompt and I could barely keep myself from laughing. So... she was some sort of lolicon? I thought only guys were into that. The host who she'd pointed out, while he was wearing the uniform of a high school student, looked like he had to either be in middle school or lower, he appeared to be the same age that my brother had been. It didn't help that he had a bunny clutched to his chest, and seemed to have his attention captured by the stand of cake across the room.

"... that one?" I asked after a moment, careful to keep my voice even.

She nodded excitedly, once again seizing my hand and dragging me forward. The boys had begun to separate to their perspective places in the room. To my surprise, instead of dragging me over to the kid she paused next to another of the hosts, a tall black-haired boy with glasses. At least this one appeared to be an appropriate age.

"Ootori-kun~" she greeted, giving a small wave of her free hand. "I believe I'm signed up for today~"

The boy in question adjusted his glasses before lowering his eyes to his clipboard.

"Ah, yes, with Honey-senpai," he said, offering a friendly smile, his eyes then flickered to me. I had to do my best not to return the look with a glare. "And this is..."

Chie gave him a brilliant smile, holding up my wrist as she answered the question.

"Morioka Nao, a friend and classmate of mine. I'd originally signed up with Hana-chan, but she was busy, so..." Chie turned her attention to me and gestured towards him with a free hand. "Nao-chan, this is Ootori Kyoya, he's a second year."

Surprise flickered through me. He was a second year and he'd called the kid senpai? Did that mean he was the same age as Chie and I?

"It's a pleasure to meet you," I said, realizing it would be polite to add in a response after the introduction she gave. My voice came out rather dull, though, not reflecting the words.

Kyoya rose a brow, but didn't comment on that. Instead he glanced towards where Honey and another boy were sitting. The one next to Honey actually seemed like he'd be the age Honey was said to be. After a moment I vaguely remembered seeing them 3-A earlier today. It must have been those two that the girls had freaked out about.

"The pleasure is mine, Morioka-senpai. It looks like they're ready for their first appointment, so feel free to head over there at this time."

It honestly felt rather strange to be called senpai by someone taller than me. Although, I guess it wouldn't feel so strange if I interacted with the underclassman more often.

Without waiting for any agreement on my side, Chie dragged me towards where the two boys were sitting. Giving off a brilliant smile, she paused right before them. Using her free hand, she tossed a bit of her brown hair that had hung in front of her face over her shoulder before gesturing at me with the hand.

"This is my friend Morioka Nao, she'll be joining us today," she said. "She's in her class, but she's not very social so I'm not sure if you would have seen her or not."

I could feel my annoyance building the longer I was around her. No matter if I was wanting to use this fake friend business on my uncle, the more people she introduced me to like that, the more I felt like denying it. For some reason she just rubbed me wrong. Instead of letting my temper show, however, I simply forced a simple smile in place.

"Nice to meet you."

_That should work. I said something, so now I'll able to just let her talk the rest of the time, right?_

Chie and I took seats across from them at the table. At that same moment I dropped my school back, nudging it under the seat with my foot. Her smile directed at her target of choice, meaning Honey. At that moment I allowed myself to study both of them, a bit of curiosity flickering through me. Was there anything in specific that would cause Chie's earlier reaction to me not knowing my favorite? Honestly, beyond Honey, with his childish features, I couldn't see what set them off from any other guys.

"Do you like cake, Nao-chan?" Honey asked, startling me. I must have zoned out a little after sitting down.

_Wait... Nao-chan?_

_When..._

"I'm Haninozuka Mitsukuni, but most people just call me Honey," he said, realizing he had my attention now. There was a childish atmosphere to even his way of speaking and the expression as he did. "And he's Morinozuka Takashi, but everyone calls him Mori, and this is my bunny, Usa-chan!"

As Honey finished, he held up the stuffed bunny he'd been holding earlier. Turning my attention away from the bunny, I glanced at the other one who'd been introduced. Meeting my eyes, Mori gave me a short nod of greeting.

"To answer your question..." I hesitated, considering what I'd eaten so far today, Uncle was very strict when it came to meals. The moment I realized the reason for my hesitation, though, I felt it fly away with a bit of annoyance added in. Why did I care? He wouldn't find out. "Yes, I like cake."

Honey gave me a pleased smile, removing a plate from the stand that I just noticed was standing on the edge of the table. He pushed it towards me and looked as if he were about to say something. However, annoyed at being out of the conversation, Chie chose that moment to start chattering about something I couldn't bother to pay attention to. Whatever it was must have been interesting, because she managed to pull Honey into the conversation.

Slightly relieved about not having any attention on me anymore, I picked up a fork and broke a way a bit of the cake before stabbing it and taking the bite. Surprise surged through me and I left the fork there for just a moment, wishing for the flavor to linger that much longer. How long had it been since I'd had sweets? At least a few months, most likely longer.

It was about then I turned my eyes upwards, realizing someone was looking at me. My eyes met Mori's, which despite his rather deadpan face, had a slightly curious look in them. Embarrassment flushed through me as I dropped my gaze back down to the cake. My expression when I'd taken the bite must have been rather strange. Removing the fork from my mouth I quickly took another bite, not letting it linger between my lips this time. I would savor the flavor, but I could do that without looking like a freak. In his manner I finished the cake.

The next time I looked at him, his expression seemed rather similar as it had been before, but I could almost have sworn that something about him gave off the feeling of being amused. I couldn't help but feel even more embarrassed as I realized that, although I was careful to keep it from my face. Needless to say, I was rather relieved when Chie informed me a few minutes later that it was time for us to go. The reason was obvious when I glanced around to find a set of girls standing and waiting for us to move so they could sit down in our places.

"See you tomorrow, Nao-chan, Chie-chan~" Honey announced as we stood.

Chie looked practically ecstatic, a blush rising to her cheeks as she gave a nod in return.

"Goodbye."

I'd just begun to stand when the word startled me. Glancing across the table, I realized that the one who had spoken was Mori. Shaking my head a little, I put on a small, fake smile and offered a wave.

"Goodbye, Honey-san, Mori-san."

With that, I quickly trailed Chie out of the room, tuning out most of her mindless chatter. Thankfully, once we were outside she quickly said goodbye and left in her car. I did the same, however, only a few moments after arriving home I realized my mistake as I reached for my bag and found it missing. Calling back the driver, I had him take me back so that I could hurry to the club room and retrieve it.

When I pulled the door open, however, the scene that met my eyes was rather surprising. The host club boys were all gathered towards one side of the room, one of them standing there with a insanely red face, his hand clasped over his mouth. Not far from him was another one of the host club boys... only instead of being in their normal attire... he was in... a dress?


	3. Chapter 3

At first it was all I could do to just stand there and stare at the hosts. Within that long moment, they slowly seemed to realize that they weren't alone. Well, all of them except the tall, blushing blonde and the cross-dresser. The cross-dresser was calmly explaining that 'he' was a '_she_'. Which was the most likely cause for the burning red face on the blonde.

As five sets of eyes settled on me, instead of voicing something that would be helpful to me in this situation, I ended up just spitting out the first thing that came to mind.

"I … I left my school bag here."

Surprise crossed a few of their faces, although Mori and Kyoya didn't seem to respond at all. Pushing myself into action, I swiftly crossed the room. No one spoke a single word as I bent down and removed my bag from under the chair I'd been sitting in earlier. Once I had it tucked over my shoulder I reluctantly turned to face them.

"Who's she?" the twins questioned, finally breaking the awkward silence.

Kyoya, who'd been watching all of this happen with interest, adjusted his glasses and opened his mouth to speak. Before he could, Honey supplied the answer.

"She's Nao-chan! She's a third year, like me, and she's in the kendo club with Mori!"

_With Mori?_

Surprise shot through me. Mori was in the kendo club? Had I ever seen him there before?

Kyoya stepped forward, offering what I first took as a friendly smile. It only took me a second to realize, however, that the smile was _too_ friendly. It was friendly to the point of being slightly scary. It had the feeling I got around my uncle's clients when he was proposing a deal that they couldn't argue, hated all the same.

"Morioka-senpai," he began, catching the attention of the blushing blonde and the boy-turned-girl. "I hope you'll understand that we don't want this incident being spread around."

"Nao-chan won't tell!"

Everyone looked to Honey in surprise. The boy in question simply grinned in response.

"Are you sure?" the blonde spoke up.

"Of course!" Honey declared. "You won't tell, will you, Nao-chan?"

And then all eyes were on me again. Taking a deep breath, I said the only thing I could in this situation.

"No, I wouldn't."

It's not like I talk to anyone anyways.

"Cause Nao-chan hates people!"

With that declaration, eyes were back on me. I barely held myself back from glaring at Honey.

"I don't hate people," I managed to say, keeping my tone calm. "I simply don't find myself with much free time to discuss things with them."

"She almost never talks to people!" he added.

"... I talk to them sometimes."

By this point the two red-heads had lost their serious expressions and looked more amused than anything. The blonde looked like he was trying to decide whether to say something. Kyoya's expression was unreadable, and the girl who wasn't a boy simply looked like she was paying attention the conversation with a bit of interest.

"The main point is," Kyoya said after a moment's silence. "How to be certain that you don't plan on telling. Honey-senpai, how well do you know this girl?"

Honey tilted his head, seeming to consider this.

"Not well, since she doesn't talk," he admitted.

"Perhaps we should keep her around," one of the twins suggested suddenly.

"Just to be safe!" the other added.

_Wait? What?_

I didn't want to have to spend another day around all the needlessly obsessed girls and obviously screwed up guys. I mean, one of them wasn't even a guy!

"That won't be-"

"That's an excellent idea!" the blonde declared.

His eyes were focused on me and I could feel my annoyance begin to build. Why the hell did they think they had a right to decide for me? I didn't care how happy he looked with this decision.

This was bad. Very bad.

"Won't you come by the club everyday? You can request to meet with whoever you want!" he continued.

Kyoya shot him an annoyed look, but simply adjusted his glasses without a word.

"I have kendo," I replied instantly.

"So does Mori-sempai! You two could walk to the club together," he replied cheerily.

"I have to head home after practice."

"I'm sure that you'll be able to work something out with your parents," he answered quickly.

I felt a pang at those words, although I made sure it didn't show on my face. If it were my parents I wouldn't even have to be here at this damn school having this stupid discussion. My parents wouldn't have dreamed of making me attend a school where the average IQ seemed to be lower than that of a goldfish.

"I really don't…" I began, startled as the blonde boy quickly crossed the room and took my hand up in his.

"Please?" he asked, his eyes seeming to get big and sparkly.

Why did I suddenly feel guilty about my plan to refuse?

_Stupid, idiotic, puppy eyed blonde._

"It's just a bit of your time," he continued, his expression suddenly changing into a charming smile. "You could stay here every day with us, and enjoy our wonderful company. Just imagine it princess."

When I didn't respond, the blonde's expression became pleading again.

"Pleeeaaaase?"

"You could eat cake with us everyday!" Honey added.

"It'd make things easier," Kyoya commented.

"You wouldn't have to be dragged here!" the twins chimed together.

"Just come to the club," the blonde spoke up once again.

_Dammit._

_There's no way out of this, is there?_

"Fine. I'll come."

"Great! I'm Souh Tamaki by the way," the blonde introduced himself cheerily as an excited grin overcame his face. "And those are the Hitachiin twins, Hikaru and Kaoru, the person there is Haruhi, and you already know the rest!"

"... a pleasure to meet you all."

* * *

"I heard you were late getting home."

Of course the first words I heard from my uncle were him commenting on my tardiness. Raising one hand to wipe the sweat from my brow, I allowed the other hand to drop to my side, practice sword and all.

"I was attempting to follow your directions, Otou-san," I replied as I offered him a small bow in greeting.

"I believe I instructed you to come home and practice. You have to present yourself in front of the board in two months, do you not?"

I barely kept myself from gritting my teeth, instead putting on a calm smile. Of course I did! How would he otherwise show off his newest prize, me, the adopted daughter? Let alone the fact that his company, one that produced body guards for high class clients, was even more important to him than his dojo.

"I do," I replied evenly. "But you have also instructed me to make friends with the important people in the school."

Uncles eyes showed his interest as the anger faded from them.

"I did. Have you?"

"Today, I stayed after school to attend a club at the request of…" I paused before forcing out the next word, although I was careful to try to make it seem natural. "... a friend."

Chie had called herself my friend, right?

"A club?" he questioned. "What club?"

And this was where the problem started.

"The Host club," I muttered, pretending to suddenly find interest in the wall beyond his face.

"... the… Host … club," he echoed slowly.

Glancing back at his expression, I saw several things cross his face in that one moment. First, disbelief, then annoyance, then irritation, and finally, realization.

"The Host club," he said once again, a thoughtful look taking over all the other emotions. "Who all are in this club?"

"Souh Tamaki, Ootori Kyoya, the Hitachiin twins, Hikaru and Kaoru, Fujioka Haruhi, Haninozuka Mitsukuni, and Morinozuka Takashi," I replied, listing off the names I'd been given earlier today.

Uncle narrowed his eyes thoughtfully before a pleased smile came to his face.

"And the results of this meeting?" he asked happily.

That smile on his face was actually a bit creepy. How many times had I actually seen Uncle smile?

"I was requested to attend again tomorrow after kendo," I responded truthfully.

"I see. The Haninozuka and Morinozuka families…" he murmured, then rose his voice. "You are to go, understood?"

Surprise shot through me.

"What?"

"You are to go. Those families are very important in our area of business."

I carefully kept the confusion from my face and thought the command over. Why would he…

_He wouldn't._

"You don't mean…" I began, unable to keep the disbelief from my expression this time around. "That you want…"

"Of course I do," my uncle answered promptly. "I want you to become close to those boys. There is much to be gained by having a daughter, I'd barely even given this idea thought before, it's perfect."

_He would._

"You are to get close to those boys, tying our families together would be the best possible thing to happen from this. You understand, don't you, Nao? Under no circumstances are you to upset them. Make them see you as very close friends, and eventually more. I understand that you aren't the perfect image of the girl a boy would want, but even you can manage this, can't you?"

To be honest, the sting of his words wasn't hard to handle with the numb feeling sweeping over me.

_Me? Do this?_

As Honey had put it, I hated dealing with people.

_Can I do this?_

"Nao? Can't you?"

One look at his expression told me there was no backing out of this.

"Of course."


	4. Chapter 4

Needless to say, I was surprised to find out at practice the next day that not only were they telling the truth about Mori being in the kendo club, but he turned out to be the captain of the kendo club. I guess I could be a bit oblivious sometimes.

A bit… well, I guess it was sorta a stretch to call not noticing the captain of your own club being _a bit_ oblivious- more like _majorly oblivious_.

"Mori….san," I greeted him upon arriving in class.

Mori paused in his warm-ups to glance at me. There wasn't any hint of what he was thinking in his expression.

"Morioka-san," he greeted in return.

Then we both just stood there, staring at each other. The silence stretched on a few uncomfortable moments until a club member called out to Mori for help with something. Giving me a nod, he turned away and went to correct the club member's stance. For the majority of club time, much to my annoyance, I found myself focusing more and more on watching him and not on practicing. I even ended up with a few bruises as a result, when a first year asked me to let him practice a technique he'd recently learned. Of course, I paid a little attention to them after that. The bruises he probably ended up with were probably more painful than the few I earned. Despite that, the first year didn't seem too upset.

When everything was over and done with, and I was changing back into the school uniform, I decided that I'd learned at once one thing during practice today. No matter what I might learn by watching his interactions during club time, it wouldn't do me any good if I ended up slacking off on my end. All of this crossed my mind as I ruefully rubbed my throbbing arm before grabbing my things and headed out of the changing room. As usual, I only found kohais wishing me goodbye, and that was probably because it was tradition in kendo to acknowledge your seniors. The majority of the club left quickly, which made me alone beyond the few people lingering in the main part of the practice room. Even in the club I'd found it difficult to make friends. The boy who had asked to practice with me earlier, and a few other people, talked to me sometimes, but not enough to count as anything.

"Morioka-san."

Startled, I glanced towards the door that led into the boy's changing room. Mori, still in his kendo outfit, had a bag slung over his shoulder and was looking towards me. I quickly recalled how it'd been suggested we walked to the club together when I'd been invited yesterday.

"Mori-san," I said while putting a smile on my face. "Are you not going to change before we go?"

His face was as expressionless as ever.

"I will change there."

"Oh."

He seemed to watch me for a second longer before starting towards the door. Startled, I followed him as I assumed he expected me to.

The moment he opened the door a figure flung itself at him.

"You're done~" Honey declared happily.

Mori simply dropped his bag and caught Honey, actually holding him in the air. I could only stare at this strange scene, my mind refusing to come up with anything to say.

"Mitsukuni," Mori greeted, then sat him down.

Honey peeked around Mori, his eyes flicking around till they spotted me. Once he had, he happily darted past Mori to fling himself at me as well.

"Nao-chan~"

Startled, I didn't do what Mori had. Instead I found myself being hugged, with me just standing there like a statue. A second later he released me, not seeming to care that I hadn't reacted in any way. He then spun on a heel to seize Mori's hand with one of his and glanced back at me to grab my free hand that was hanging tensely at my side.

"Let's go!"

Mori started out the door once again, Honey trailing behind him this time. Unsure of what else to do, I just allowed myself to tugged along behind him with my bag held in my other hand.

Once we'd arrived, Honey dropped my hand to go to the changing room with Mori. For a moment I simply stood frozen in place in front of the doorway. What had been only a simple music room the day before had transformed into some sort of tropical paradise, complete with the birds and the heat. Completely unsure of what to do, I stiffly sat my bag down on one of the tables and perched on the edge of a chair. As I looked around to see who all was already here, and what they were doing, I swiped a hand across my forehead to clear away the sweat that was still collecting on my forehead. Following kendo practice by the heat of a tropical paradise setting made me wonder about if they had anything that _I_ could change into.

_Honestly though,_ I thought to myself as I looked around. _What would make someone want to do something like this? What's the purpose in it? _

I could almost immediately draw up an answer from my mind, as irritating as the idea was. I'd spent the night yesterday, after finishing practice, doing as my uncle suggested. A suggestion from my uncle was the same as an order- which meant I found myself reading up on host clubs. From what I'd learned, a lot of them would have cosplay type days, which I guessed was what this was. Then again, while I understood that it wasn't such a strange thing when it came to groups like this… I couldn't help but find it weird.

_Why the heck would someone want something like this in December?_

Shaking my head, I noted that the only one of the host club boys who I hadn't seen come in was the one that wasn't a boy, Haruhi. A moment later, I'd decided there wasn't anything for me to do right now and searched through my bag until I located my book. It only took seconds to locate the page I'd left on before class.

I'm not sure how much later it was, but Haruhi did end up showing up, looking like a boy once again, and making a fuss over the tropical atmosphere. Only a few minutes after she arrived was when the club events actually began- at which time I found myself retreating to a table that was more towards a corner of the room making sure to keep my bag and book with me.

Unfortunately, I'd only turned a page when I remembered my uncle's request. Glancing around the room, I located where Honey and Mori were with my eyes. Hesitating, I considered my options, and my chances of backing out of this. Realizing that I should just get it over with so that I could report that I had done something when I got home, I stood and searched the room for Kyoya. I'd easily recalled that yesterday Kyoya had been the one Chie had discussed her booking with.

Locating him, I walked over to where he and Haruhi stood, discussing something about Bali. The look on his face as he finished their conversation was creepily close to that smile my uncle had worn when speaking of his plans the night before.

_An evil smile,_ I noted to myself. _It'd be a good idea to stay on his good side._

"Kyoya?" I called out, once I was sure they had finished talking.

"Hm?"

He turned towards my voice, his steely gray eyes not betraying whatever might be on his mind.

"Morioka-senpai," he said as he spotted me. "Did you decide on the offer Tamaki gave you yesterday?"

I paused before him, surprise shooting through me, although I was careful to keep it from my expression. How had he so easily guessed what I'd come over to discuss?

"Yes," I told him, pulling up my practiced smile. "I was wondering if I could meet with Mori and Honey sometimes, I got along with them quite well yesterday."

As I spoke, Haruhi was pulled away by one of the fangirls, leaving me alone with Kyoya. He pursed his lips thoughtfully and glanced down at the clipboard in his hands. A second later he gave a nod, writing something down, then flipping a page over and writing again.

"That will work," he said as he wrote. He then paused and glanced up at me from the board. "No one but them, then?"

That unreadable face of his was unnerving.

"Yes, just them," I said, putting up a sheepish expression this time, hoping it would seem real. "I don't really know anyone else just yet, and they're the same age as me, so it's easier."

Kyoya studied me for a moment then simply nodded his head.

"If you are willing to wait, they'll be free shortly," he said, turning his head slightly as one of the girls called his name. "If you'll excuse me."

Watching him walk away, I tried to push away my uneasy feeling before going and sitting back down in my secluded corner. Within a moment I had gone back to reading. Bits and pieces of conversation caught my ears as things went on, such as some girl deciding Haruhi was her favorite, or the twins making sickening comments towards each other.

It wasn't too long, however, before I heard my name being called and looked up to see Kyoya gesture towards Mori and Honey's direction. I nodded back at him and gathered my things. I almost instantly decided it would be best to leave him be and walk over to Honey and Mori on my own, as Kyoya seemed to have quite the audience of fangirls questioning the tropical setting of the club.

"Hello, Mori-san, Honey-san," I said as I approached the table.

Honey instantly turned to look at me, an adorable grin spreading across his face.

"Nao-chan!" he said cheerily.

As I sat my things down next to my seat and tucked my book away in my bag, I noticed that Honey was tilting his head to the side and giving me a thoughtful look. Once I'd sat down, he grinned again, apparently making a decision on whatever he was thinking about.

"Nao-chan is too formal!" he declared.

"I am?" I asked, allowing my surprise to reach my face this time, deciding it was probably the most appropriate expression to be displaying. Most of the girls here in the club seemed to display a lot of emotions, so that would most likely be the best approach when interacting with these boys.

"Uh-huh," Honey replied. "You don't need to use '-san'!"

I offered him what should have come across as a curious smile.

"Then what should I use?"

As I spoke, I allowed my eyes to flicker to Mori for a moment. I wasn't too surprised to find that despite his even expression and his silence, he seemed to be paying attention to the conversation.

"Well," Honey said slowly. "We're in the same class, and now we've talked, so you should just say Honey and Mori without the honorifics. That's what everyone but our kohais call us!"

The smile he gave me as he finished speaking was bright and cheerful. I actually paused before replying to him just to admire the fact that I could tell that his smile was completely genuine.

"Then I'll do that," I replied.

"Good," Honey said happily.

After that, Honey reached past Mori and I to grab a cake off of the sweets stand sitting to the side of the table. Curious, I watched as he sat it down on the table and picked up a spare fork. The reason for my curiosity was that he already had a half-finished piece sitting in front of him. The reason for the cake became obvious a second later, however, as he pushed it across the table to me. With that same smile in place he offered the fork for me to take.

"You looked really happy when you ate that cake yesterday," he told me in explanation. "So you should eat some today, too!"

I hesitated, running through all I'd eaten today, just as I'd done yesterday when I was offered a piece. If I was going to come here and eat cake almost every day, it would seem that I would have to take up my amount of exercise so that I didn't risk the chance of putting on any weight. I was rather certain that uncle would not appreciate that, seeing as he'd put me on a strict meal schedule since I'd moved in with him.

"Aren't you going to eat it?"

Startled by his voice, I looked up to reply to Honey, but found my eyes settling on Mori instead. That emotionless expression of his was still in place, but I almost felt like there was some feeling of curiosity coming from his look. Curiosity towards what, I couldn't have said, since I wasn't even sure why I felt like it was there.

"Nao-chan?"

"Y-yes," I said, tearing my eyes away from him and looking to Honey. "Of course."

Taking the fork I was being offered, I broke off the tip of the cake. My eyes watched as crumbs fell to the plate from my small bite. Unable to continue to ponder whether it was a smart idea to eat the cake any longer, I quickly slid the bite into my mouth. Across the table Honey giggled, causing me to cover my mouth with one hand as I ducked my head, barely avoiding my cheeks flushing in embarrassment.

What had my expression looked like, I wondered. He'd laughed, so it must have been obvious how much I loved the taste of a simple bite of moist cake.

"Nao-chan really likes cake," Honey commented happily.

"Just a little," I murmured, using breaking off another bite as an excuse not to look at them.

Honey giggled once more, than began eating his own cake and allowing us to sit there in silence for a few moments. When I'd finished my cake, however, he'd already begun talking cheerily about some different topic. I gave a reply now and then, my eyes settled on the empty plate. Suddenly it disappeared from my view, and I glanced up in surprise.

Mori had moved it over by him and was removing another slice from the stand. Without saying a word, he sat the new slice down on the table and moved it over to where the empty plate had previously been sitting. My eyes flickered between him and the cake before settling on him. Some part of my mind noted that Honey had stopped talking and I forced myself to simply offer Mori a friendly smile.

"Thank-you."

He just nodded in return, that expression of his never really changing.

"Takashi is really nice," Honey said happily, then paused as something seemed to occur to him. "Oh! Is Nao-chan coming to the Christmas party?"

I frowned, trying to remember if I'd heard anything about the party. I barely managed to pull up that a few people had discussed it earlier while I was reading.

"That's sometime later this week, isn't it?" I asked.

"Yep! You have to come. I know you don't like people, but it'll be fun anyways!"

I knew what my uncle would say if I mentioned the party to him, or if he heard about it somehow. I was sure that after yesterday he'd start monitoring any news about the club that spread around his sources.

"I'll come."


	5. Chapter 5

Perhaps my uncle had some sort of obsession with dolls when he was younger.

"The neckline is too low in that one, try on the next!"

I never would have thought I'd end up trying on dresses for him for two hours straight. The fact that my uncle had some sort of fashion ideal in his head surprised me. Although, I guess it didn't surprise me as much as the fact that he had the patience to stand there as I put on dress after dress.

"You look twenty sizes bigger. Next."

Or maybe he was just enjoying making fun of me. That was another highly probable possibility.

As I walked down the hall from my bedroom to show off yet another dress, I could feel my annoyance building to a boiling point. Once I'd informed Uncle about the party being put on by the host club, he'd instantly called out his favorite designers to our house, demanding they bring along a large selection of dresses with them. From what I could tell from the material and the styles, each dress probably cost more than a commoner's house.

"Why couldn't you have inherited something beyond your athletic ability from your mother," I heard him mutter as I turned in a circle to demonstrate the dress. "That woman was a beauty. How did you end up so plain?"

By this point I was imagining having my kendo sword with me so that I could strike him with it. How many times did he plan on insulting me within a short time span?

"Perhaps we should dye your hair."

Feeling something snap, I gripped the fabric of my dress tightly in my hands and glared at him.

"I am not your doll," I muttered, then raised my voice a bit louder. "I am not dying my hair."

Uncle Harou froze, then his expression became cold.

"You will do whatever I say," he said, his tone leaving no room for argument. "If I tell you to dye your hair, you will. Luckily for you, that was just a passing whim. It wouldn't be as simple as that to make you look prettier. You're too short and lack needed things, such as curves. You should feel lucky that I decided to take you in as you are."

I stiffened, once again reminded of the fact that Uncle was indeed taking care of me. The only reason he was standing here for hours on end, and contemplating dying my hair, was because he needed, no, wanted, me to play the perfect daughter. As someone being completely provided for in every way, it was only right of me to do as he wished.

"I'm sorry," I replied, my voice quiet and even. Any anger I'd been feeling had drained away into a numb feeling.

_What was I thinking?_ There was no better word to describe me than to call me a doll.

I wear clothing chosen for me, a smile painted on by a need to please others, and move as I'm told.

The perfect daughter.

The perfect _doll._

"I spoke out-of-place. Of course I will do as you wish, Otou-san."

"I would expect nothing less," he replied instantly. There was still a coldness in his voice and expression. "Turn around once again."

I did as I was told, and a thoughtful expression appeared on his face. With a sigh, Uncle nodded to himself and gave a snap of his fingers.

"That will do. I expect you to make an effort to look nice by putting on make-up and perfume, and doing something with your hair for the Christmas party," Uncle said.

"I will."

"Good, now go get changed while I settle the matter of the dress with the designers."

* * *

Later that week found me standing at the entrance to the party, my entire body stiff as I stared around at all the people. I was expected to socialize with so many people? Would they even recognize me?

I pulled up a mental image of what I'd seen in the mirror before I'd left home earlier. My chestnut hair was pulled up into a half bun, the free hair cascading just past the base of my neck in its natural curls. My lips and eyes stood out more than usual as a result of the lightly placed black mascara and slightly bright, but basically natural colored lipstick. The dress I wore was a color that laid somewhere between peach and orange, and only hand one strap, which crossed over my left shoulder. It also had a ribbon of the same color that was tied in a bow around my waist and the dress itself fell just a few inches past my knees.

For once I looked almost nice.

As people passed by on both sides of me, I found myself questioning once again why I'd agreed to this party in the first place, although I already knew the answer. Between Honey's innocent question and my uncle's stubbornness, I would never have had a choice other than this. Still, why was someone like me, standing in the middle of something like this?

Quickly moving towards the wall, I made my way around the room, while making an effort not to be noticed by anyone. Perhaps I'd be able to find an empty room off of this one, a room where I could hide out for the rest of the time.

Just as I was about to reach the stairs, however, I felt a hand descend on each of my shoulders.

"Nao-senpai came?"

The synchronized voices caused a shudder to run through me.

Apparently I wasn't that good at sneaking around a crowded room.

I turned around, shrugging off the hands. Not at all to my surprise, the owners of those hands turned out to be the Hitachiin twins.

"It's Kaoru and Hikaru, right?" I asked, putting on my best friendly smile.

Since they were friends with the two boys I'd been ordered to become friends with, it would probably be best if I didn't make enemies of them, but instead attempted to at least be on friend-like terms with them as well.

"Which of us is which?" they asked together, each of them holding a smirk.

I almost scowled, but easy changed the expression to one of puzzlement before it surfaced.

"I'm sorry, but I don't really know you well enough yet to be able to tell."

The two exchanged looks, then shrugged.

"I'm Kaoru."

"I'm Hikaru."

"I see…" I responded, taking note of which they said was which.

Hopefully they weren't lying.

"Was there something you two wanted?"

The two of them seemed to consider the question, then looked at each other. A moment later, they nodded, seeming to have recalled whatever it was they approached me for.

"Honey mentioned you earlier," Hikaru said.

"He was wondering when you were going to arrive," Kaoru added.

"He's over there," the two of them finished together, pointing across the room.

I glanced in the direction, easily guessing that the crowd of girls was were the little senpai was located.

"Oh."

We stood there for a moment, staring at each other.

"Aren't you going to go over there?"

I hesitated, then gave them the closest thing I could imagine to a sheepish look at that moment.

"I wouldn't want to interrupt."

One of them looked like he was going to say something, but at that moment he was called out to by one of the host club fangirls. I felt relief flood through as they were forced to go entertain their guests instead of making a comment on my words. At the same time, however, my eyes flickered back to the crowd of girls that pinpointed Honey's position.

I guess I was here tonight to see him and Mori. My Uncle would be upset if I didn't at least have one conversation with them while I was here.

I had just started in Honey's direction when Mori cut through the fangirls. Honey said something to them at the same time, and the group reluctantly dispersed. Seeing this, I hesitated.

However the second I stopped walking, my eyes met Mori's. His expression didn't change, but he said one word, catching Honey's attention. Immediately looking to Mori, he followed Mori's line of sight to me.

"Nao-chan!" Honey called out, waving his hand back and forth excitedly.

Amusement flickered through me, and to my surprise, I found myself offering him a genuinely friendly smile. His actions were just too similar to those in my memories of my little brother. My hesitation gone, I crossed the small distance between us.

"Honey, Mori," I greeted them.

"You have a pretty dress," Honey replied, cheerily. "You look a lot better in that color than in yellow!"

I laughed, quickly pulling together a good response in my mind.

"Of course, yellow has never been my color. Also, you look very nice in your suit."

He still looks like an elementary student, even when dressed up like this, I thought to myself. It was cute, the kind of cute one felt when looking at a small animal or child. Perhaps all of this was why I found him so easy to deal with. Honey, if he were the age he acted, would be around the same age as my little brother had been.

"Mitsukuni," Mori said suddenly.

Honey glanced at him, then realization crossed his expression.

"Oh!" he began, looking back to me with an apologetic smile. "We have to go do something, we'll be back real soon."

He started to turn away, but then paused for a moment, and looked back to me. A happy grin appeared on his face, and he began bouncing on his heels excitedly.

"Nao-chan, you could just come with us," he declared. "You already know the secret so everyone should be fine with it!"

Surprise shot through me.

"You keep inviting me to things," I said before I could help myself. "Why? You don't even know me that well."

He simply gave me an even bigger grin.

"'cause Nao-chan's in my class," he said simply. "But you never talk to anyone, or do anything but what people want you to. It's fun to see Nao-chan actually talk!"

And with that, he grabbed a hold of Mori's hand and darted through the crowd. I hesitated just for a moment before quickly, but carefully, following after them. A moment later they seemed to have found what they were looking for.

"Haru-chan!"

Honey came to a stop just long enough for Mori to sling Haruhi over his shoulder, then took off again. Not quite sure of what else to do, I once again followed after them, curiosity filling me. Why were they kidnapping the cross-dresser?

"Here she comes," one of the twins said as Haruhi was dumped into a room a bit down the hall from the main room.

"Wah? Hey," Haruhi complained. "What are you…"

"Okay, okay, no complaints," the other twin commanded while shoving a pile of clothing at her. "Just go change your clothes! We don't have much time!"

"Huh?"

All I could do was watch as Haruhi was forced into a changing area to put on the clothing she'd been given.

"Morioka-senpai?" Kyoya asked, causing the others to realize I was there as well.

"What are you doing here?" the twins demanded.

"I brought her~" Honey declared with that grin of his. "Nao-chan looked bored!"

They all gave Honey a blank look. He just shrugged and turned back to the curtain that was hiding Haruhi.

"Haru-chan~ Are your ready yet~?"

Seeming to decide to pay attention to the problem at hand, and put the matter of me off for later, Kyoya turned to face her as she exited from behind the curtain. I was surprised to discover that Haruhi in a dress was actually a cute sight.

"Ready?" Kyoya asked, giving a smile. "The time limit is twenty minutes until the climax of the party. We already seen Suzushima-san to classroom 11-C."

Haruhi was instantly shoved into a chair before she had the chance to say a word, and attacked with make-up and hair brushes. They even stuck a wig on her. Once they were finally pleased with their work, I edged my way around so that I could join the group looking at the results.

"She doesn't look bad," I murmured under my breath.

"Of course she doesn't," the twins chorused proudly.

"Our mother is a fashion designer," one of them added.

As we spoke, Honey stepped closer to Haruhi to pull her to her feet. He gave her one of his happy smiles as he gave her instructions on whatever it was they were wanting her to do in this get-up.

"Guys, you shouldn't come to this room all together!" Tamaki complained as he suddenly burst into the room. "You need to attend to the guests-"

He broke off as he caught sight of the twins creation.

"Our best try! How is it, Tono?" One of the twins asked.

"We even put makeup on her!" the other added.

"Ahh…yeah…" Tamai replied, looking starstruck.

"Haru-chan's cute!" Honey declared. He then turned to me with an expectant look. "Right, Nao-chan?"

I hesitated, then gave him a nod.

"Yes."

"Alright! Haru-chan, try your best!"

And with that, everyone began filing towards the door. Well, everyone except for Tamaki. He simply stood there with a red face, looking the opposite direction of Haruhi while covering his mouth with his hand.

Looking between him and the others, a thought occurred to me that I decided to ask Honey and Mori about when I got the chance. It came soon enough, after they'd seen Haruhi off to do her job, the rest of the host club members, excluding Tamaki, hurried back to their duties at the party. I carefully made sure that I caught up with Mori and Honey before they got surrounded by fan-girls.

"Does Souh-san like Fujioka-san?" I asked them.

Honey's eyes got wide at my question, and a second later he simply gave me that childish grin of his.

"I wonder."

Then, without offering any other answers, he grabbed my hand and gave me an even larger grin.

"Nao-chan, Nao-chan, you know how to dance, right?"

Startled, I only nodded.

"Good!" Honey declared happily. "Then we can dance after the event! You haven't danced yet, right? Here, come on!"

Without being given a choice in the matter, I found myself being lead over to a window with Mori tailing us.

"Look, Nao-chan!" Honey said happily as he pointed down at a Christmas tree in the courtyard below. "Watch this, it's what Haru-chan was making happen, since Tama-kun wanted to help!"

Curious, I watched, just as I'd been instructed. A moment later a girl came rushing by, a boy right behind her. The boy caught her by the hand, and something was said that made the girl look as if she was going to cry, but in a happy way.

Afterwards, just as he had said he would, Honey pulled me into dancing with him during the last waltz. It worked out rather well because of our similarities in height. Halfway through the song, however, Honey asked me to stay where I was, a grin dominating his face. Darting across to where Mori was, he tapped Mori on the back, causing the couple to stop moving. I then saw his lips moving as he animatedly told Mori something. Whatever it was, it caused Mori to glance over at me, then back to Honey and give a nod, no emotion in his expression.

The girl he'd been dancing with happily released his hands and took up Honey's instead. What surprised me the most about it, though, was that as soon as that was done, Mori crossed the distance to where Honey had left me.

"Mitsukuni said to dance," he said, the words simple, but enough.

I nodded, and took up hands with him. Unlike with Honey, however, it was a bit different. Mori was at least a foot, maybe two feet, taller than I was. As such, I had to lean my head back so that I could see his face, and the movements ended up slightly awkward as I tried to adjust to the difference in the way I stood with him in comparison to Honey.

"You're small."

Startled, I realized that Mori had actually spoke to me without having to be given a reason. I said the only thing that came to mind.

"You're tall."


	6. Chapter 6

"Kimonos," I muttered under my breath. "They're wearing kimonos."

_Well, at least it's better than the tropical outfits they wore not that long ago,_ I reluctantly admitted to myself. _A kimono doesn't show nearly as much skin._

"Kyaaa!"

However, kimonos did seem to cause more screaming from the fangirl side of things. I was considering searching through my bag for earplugs to block the sounds of the fangirling when different voice caught my attention. This voice happened to be much less annoying and more adorable.

"Nao-chan, Nao-chan," Honey called out.

Putting my book to the side, I was startled to find tears welling up in Honey's eyes. He stood only a few feet away and was dressed in a kimono like the rest of the host club.

"Honey?"

"I lost one of my straw sandals."

As what he had said sank in, I realized that he indeed happened to be wearing only one shoe. Quickly getting to my feet, I closed the distance between him and myself and knelt in front of him. Unable to keep the image of him and my brother from overlapping in my mind, I reached out and ruffled his hair.

"Calm down," I told him, causing surprise to appear on his face.

How was it that the longer I was around him, the more and more he reminded me of Akihito?

They didn't even look similar except for their height.

Aki had been in his last year of elementary school. A perfect image of Aki popped into my mind as the question ran through it. His brown hair never looked as if he let the servants run even a single comb through it. Aki's clothing had always been in disarray, mostly from the fact that he was always hiding in little places to see how far he could push the patience of those who were supposed to be watching him.

The most outstanding feature of his in that perfect image I could recall of him, however, happened to be his eyes. The gleaming gray eyes he'd inherited from my father's side. The same eyes uncle had, only instead of coldness they always seemed to portray excitement.

Perhaps the excitable nature he'd had was why Honey reminded me so much of him.

"Can you remember where you put it on?" I continued, pushing these thoughts aside. "Or the last time you remember wearing it?"

As if my words had triggered something, his tears, instead of just welling up in his eyes, actually began to fall. I immediately felt guilty as I searched for some way to calm him down. My hands were now hanging in the air between us seeing as I was unsure of what exactly to do.

"I can't remember!"

The fangirls, who'd been standing to the side up to this point, spoke up.

"Honey-kun! Don't cry, we'll help you find it!"

Was it my imagination, or did a couple of them actually send me a dirty look?

Dismissing the thought, I decided to ignore them and help Honey in the only way I could. I was about to go searching for the sandal when Mori suddenly appeared at Honey's side. Kneeling down next to him like some kind of servant, Mori picked up Honey's foot and slipped on the missing sandal. When I checked to see if that fixed Honey, I was surprised to see him staring at Mori with one of his hands placed in front of his mouth in the shape of a fist.

"Takashi."

Was Honey really the same age as me? I could only stare as he suddenly flung his arms around Mori in a grateful hug.

"It was over there," Mori calmly replied.

Shaking my head, I noted that the tears almost instantly cleared up. Relieved to see that the crisis had passed, even if it was in such a strange way, I pulled myself to my feet and started to move back to where I'd been sitting.

"Nao-chan…" Honey said, dragging my attention back to him as I was about to sit down.

I paused, then turned to face him, leaving my book be for a few moments longer.

"Yes?"

The look that appeared on his face both made me feel suspicious and made him look completely adorable at the same time.

"Will you come eat cake with me?"

"Sure."

The word was out of my mouth before I'd even considered my response. Surprise shot through me, along with annoyance.

How much time had passed since I'd started coming to the host club in the evenings? I knew it couldn't have been long, perhaps only been a month at most. How was it that within that short amount of time this sort of thing had begun to happen? Not a single thought had gone through my mind about how to respond. Not one.

It was annoying, but nice at the same time. Who knew I could do something without having to think about it?

Grinning, Honey seized my hand and dragged me over towards his table. Mori, to no one's surprise, trailed along behind us. Just as we'd almost reached it, however, a commotion came from over near the doorway. Curious, Honey dropped my hand and ran over to where the twins were. Apparently a new person had appeared.

I was considering whether to go back to reading, and take advantage of this release in Honey's request, when Tamaki decided to approach this new person. Her reaction captured my attention immediately.

"DON'T TOUCH ME YOU FAKER!" she shouted, shoving Tamaki away. "I can't believe you're recognized as a prince in this club! A prince shouldn't sprinkle his love so easily! It makes girls' hearts tremble if you smile with sorrow, but why do you look so stupid?! It's as if you're a light-headed narcissist! Useless! Too ordinary! YOU'RE THE WORST!"

I watched in amazement as Tamaki was sent sprawling on the ground from her verbal assault.

The girl, on the other hand, flung herself at a thoughtful, and surprised, looking Kyoya.

"Kyoya-sama~" she called out, tears appearing in her eyes. "I wanted to see you so badly. My only prince."

It was then that I decided that grabbing my book and sitting down with a slice of cake would most likely be much less troublesome than involving myself in whatever was about to happen.

* * *

I was right.

The girl, as a result of a long, and confusing conversation which I reasonably decided not to involve myself with, was discovered to be an otaku under the delusion that a) Kyoya was someone who was kind and/or a romantic interest, and b) that she was engaged to him. As I had originally thought, it was much less troublesome to simply ignore them and continue reading my book and picking at my slice of cake.

"Morioka-senpai?"

I soon discovered, however, that by choosing the less troublesome route, there was the problem of unexpected developments.

Glancing up from my book, I realized that the only ones left in the room with the delusional otaku happened to be Haruhi and I. Glancing towards the club room door, I caught sight of an apologetic looking blonde, before the small open space in the doorway was quickly shut.

"Morioka-senpai, would you want to join Renge-san and I?" Haruhi asked, the practically pleading undertone to her words rather obvious.

Hesitation fluttered through me. Did I really have to get involved in something this troublesome? The answer was obvious to me a moment later. The host club members had left, and I had long since figured out that Haruhi was the rumored scholarship student. I was under no obligation to make her like me. Plus, since the host club members had abandoned her, they couldn't possibly see me in a bad light if I did the same.

"Morioka-senpai?"

I offered her a sheepish smile, and held up my book.

"I'm sorry, but I'm not that good of a cook," I lied. "I'm much more comfortable left like this."

"Come on, Haruhi-kun!" Renge called out as I finished speaking. "We don't need any help! We'll make wonderful cookies."

From the expression on Haruhi's face, it looked like she had about as much faith in that declaration as I did. However, I stayed sitting where I was as I watched Renge drag her off. Once they were gone, I looked back to my book, attempting to figure out where I'd left off. Annoyingly, no matter how many times I read the page I found it difficult to take in what the words were saying.

After reading the page for about the dozenth time, I shut the book with a loud noise and placed it on top of the table next to the plate that still held part of my cake. Turning my attention to the dessert, I swiftly picked up my fork and broke off a bite. After it hit my tongue, however, I was even more irritated than I had been with my book. The cake didn't taste as sweet as I thought it had.

_'We'll make wonderful cookies.'_

Renge's words flashed through my mind and I sighed while glaring at my book and the cake. If these things wouldn't entertain me until the time my driver arrived, then I didn't have a choice, did I?

It wasn't as if I were going to help Haruhi. I couldn't care less about the cross-dresser's problems- I simply needed something to keep myself entertained. There was no other reason that I left the room and made my way to the kitchen. On my way there I noted, and ignored, the surprised looks the spying hosts gave me from their crouched positions outside the door.

"Morioka-senpai?" Haruhi asked, looking both surprised and relieved to see me. "You decided to come help?"

I hesitated, then looked away, ignoring the slight heat I felt in my cheeks.

"I just wanted to make sure you made them right," I muttered. "It would be a shame to have the people who eat them get sick because they weren't made right."

Haruhi looked amused, as if something I'd said struck her as funny. Whatever it was, she didn't share it, and instead pointed towards a bowl a few counters away.

"Alright, then can you start on that bunch?" she asked, then looked towards where Renge was stirring something on the stove. "I'll make sure she doesn't kill us all."

I nodded, amusement flickering through my mind, as I walked over to the bowl. After making sure that no one was looking, I swiped a finger through the batter and brought it to my mouth. As I tasted it, I almost scowled. Sure, there wasn't anything wrong with what Haruhi had made, but if I had my say in the matter, and I obviously did, I would prefer it much sweeter. That was another reason that Uncle had cut sweets out of my diet.

As such, I grabbed the sugar from where it sat a small distance away and dumped a good scoop of it into the bowl. When I tasted it this time, I almost smiled.

_Perfect._

As soon as I'd gotten the cookies onto a tray, I slipped over to an oven and put them inside. I then focused on setting the timer to the amount of time I remembered these type of cookies taking. It wasn't until I'd already finished that I remembered most other people normally don't share my preference about these sort of things. The only one I'd ever managed to get to even try any sweets I'd made before the accident happened to be my Dad. Akihito had always complained that I was trying to kill him by sugar overload.

When we'd finished, Renge immediately grabbed her cookies and darted over to where the host club boys had hidden themselves. Ignoring the shouts that came shortly afterwards, apparently even with Haruhi's help Renge's cooking skills didn't exist, I tucked my own cookies into a basket, making sure they were cool enough for me to do so.

Perhaps I could give Uncle Harou a few when I got home. Since Dad liked them, perhaps Uncle would as well.

"You made cookies, Nao-chan?"

Startled, I looked towards Honey, who was naturally being tailed by Mori. They must have managed to escape from everything going on outside the kitchen.

"Yes," I told him, gesturing towards the basket. "They're in here."

Honey's eyes lit up as he studied the basket. A second later he turned his eyes to me with a hopeful look on his face.

"Can I have one?"

Hesitation fluttered through me as I glanced between him and Mori. Honey certainly did like sweets, but would he really be on the same level as me when it came to exactly how sweet?

"Pleeeeaaase, Nao-chan?" Honey asked.

"Fine, fine," I said after a moment, putting on that friendly smile I tended up put up around them. It was better than showing my reluctance.

"Mori too?"

I couldn't say no to the look on Honey's face, although I was almost certain that Mori would hate it. Picking up the basket, I held it down so that Honey could grab them. As I was putting the basket down I watched Honey hand over Mori's cookie to him and then take a bite of his own.

"It's sweet!" he declared happily, a large grin dominating his face. "Really sweet! I love it, Nao-chan!"

Surprise surged through me. He liked them? This discovery caused me to look to Mori, who'd stayed silent throughout this exchange. I noted right away that he'd already taken a bite of his cookie. When Mori caught me looking, he simply gave a nod. If I hadn't known better I would have thought there was a hint of smile there as well.

"It's good."

For some reason, those two words held as much weight to them as Honey's excited declarations. It was strange, I decided. Perhaps it was because he didn't speak much and he'd chosen to say those two words.

Honey took a few more cookies from my basket after his pleading face made me reluctantly agree. He then rushed to the fridge to pull out milk, declaring to me that everyone would probably like milk to go with the sweets we'd cooked.

I was almost finished cleaning up when I heard Renge begin to throw one of her fits. Apparently, she hadn't liked Honey's idea about the milk. Taking my cue to leave, I grabbed my basket and slipped out the door. Maybe Uncle would like them. Honey and Mori had.

* * *

**A/N: Now that I've caught up with where the story sits on the other site I've published it on, the updates for this story will only come out once a week. I normally post them towards the end (Thurs.-Sun.). Also, I plan on getting a Beta reader, so hopefully the grammar and spelling mistakes don't get missed as often. I tried to carefully read over it this time. **

**Secondly, the reason I didn't do the second half of this arc is simply because Nao's personality didn't fit it. She won't go along with things she deems 'troublesome' without a reason to.**


	7. Chapter 7

It didn't surprise me much when Uncle Harou declared the cookies weren't to his taste. Instead of just throwing them away, however, I came up with a better idea.

"Senpai...these are a little sweet."

I glanced at the sheepish first year and lowered my kendo sword. I noticed almost right away that it seemed each of the other club members had only taken one cookie each, despite the fact I'd told them I wanted to get rid of them. A sigh escaped my lips before I painted on a smile and looked to the kohai who'd spoken.

"It's fine, you don't have to eat it," I told them. "Uncle didn't like them either, so I hoped you guys would finish them off."

For some reason, tears welled up on the kohai's eyes. In my mind I went over what I'd said, there was nothing wrong in that sentence, was there?

"I'll eat them all, senpai!" he declared, shoving the rest of the cookie in his mouth.

"Wait, didn't you just say you didn't like it?" I questioned, unable to keep the confusion, and slight irritation, from my face.

"Nwo ai nwever saih thah."

I simply stared at the kid who was trying to talk with his mouth chock full of cookies. Realization flashed across his face and it turned bright red. He then looked to be struggling for a moment as he obviously tried to swallow everything in his mouth. A second later he gave me a big grin as he was successful in the attempt.

"I said, no, I never said that," he informed me cheerily. In return I studied him suspiciously, rather certain that he was lying. "After all, senpai is a wonderful cook! I would never hurt senpai's feelings by saying otherwise!"

Ah, so that was it.

"It'd hurt my feelings more if you said they were good when they weren't," I told the kid simply.

His grin turned into a panicked expression as my words sunk in. Apparently the kid had no clue what to say to that. Just as I was about to let him off the hook something caught his attention over my shoulder.

"Mori-senpai!"

What?

"Mori-senpai, Morioka-senpai brought cookies!"

I turned away from them as Mori approached, hiding the fact that my face had flushed red. Mori had been there when I cooked them, surely he would be able to recognize not only the cookies, but the basket as well.

"If you don't need anything else, I'm going back to practicing," I grumbled.

Not much to my surprise, the kid didn't continue to bug me. Instead, despite my attempts at tuning him out, I heard as he enthusiastically handed the cookies off to Mori using the excuse that he'd already eaten too many sweets today. Without waiting for any response from Mori, he took off to join his friends on the other side of the practice room.

Unable to help myself, I peeked behind me to see what Mori's reaction to all of this was. I instantly regretted the action when I found my eyes meeting Mori's. He had a cookie held in one hand, the basket settled in the other, and his kendo sword balanced against the wall behind him. Immediately straightening back around, I brought my sword down in a swift motion. It didn't matter what he thought about those being the cookies from yesterday, I decided sullenly.

Despite my decision, I continued to think over what his reaction would be.

Perhaps he would simply think that I was being nice to the club members by bringing in the cookies I'd made yesterday. Sure, that sort of action would be out of character for me, but it wasn't an impossibility. I mean, it wasn't like I was a mean person, just an inattentive one. As such, perhaps it wouldn't seem as pathetic as I thought it was for me to be bringing in these cookies, but instead would seem to be a strange, but kind move on my part.

Either way, it didn't matter.

I practiced quite hard after that, attempting to shove any thoughts connected to the host club or to Uncle out of my mind. None of that mattered while I was practicing this. I'd given up gymnastics for kendo, the least I could do in respect to gymnastics was give my all in what I now had to do. In the time since then, I've made amazing progress, or so my teachers have said. This can only be because of all the practice I've put in.

Continuing this way would be one of the few things I could do that would actually please Uncle Harou.

"Morioka-senpai! Morioka-senpai!"

Startled, I relaxed my stance and turned to find the kid from earlier waving his hand back and forth at me with an ecstatic look on his face. Standing next to him were Mori and a second year girl who looked vaguely familiar. Hesitating for a moment, I glanced between them and my sword.

"Morioka-senpai, come here, it's good news!"

I pursed my lips, but gave in. By the time I'd reached them, that fake, friendly smile was painted back on my lips and my bamboo kendo sword hanging lightly by my side.

"Good news?" I asked, making sure my tone was friendly as well. Who knew what families the two unidentified club members were from.

The first year looked eagerly to Mori, who for once actually spoke.

"Our school has been invited to take part in a team tournament," he began, his voice anything but excited.

"A team event requires five people," I replied, glancing at our little group, it was easy to assume that the gathering was because he was choosing people to participate in the competition.

"The vice-captain will be joining us," Mori informed me. "But he's currently retaking a test."

I could almost imagine an irk mark appearing on my forehead at that moment. The vice-captain of the team was missing practice to make up a test? Why would someone like that be made the vice-captain?

"Mori-senpai has already decided the order!" the kid explained excitedly. "Haven't you, Mori-senpai?"

I noted with interest that the other girl had stayed silent most of this time. She simply seemed to be paying attention to the conversation, her sword gripped tightly in her hands.

"Arai-kohai will be the senpo."

From the look on the first years face, it was easy enough to guess that his surname must be Arai.

"Kinjo-kohai is the jihou," he continued, the girl giving everyone the traditional bow that was used when showing respect in kendo. "Morioka-san is the chuuken. Vice-captain Fujii will be the fukusho and I will be the taishou."

As I ran over the list in my mind, it all made sense from what I'd seen, although I wasn't yet sure of the kohai's skills. The first position, senpo, is typically filled by an extremely energetic person, seeing as it sets the pace for the entire match. It also didn't matter that he was a first year, it wasn't uncommon for the positions of senpo and jihou to be filled by junior members.

The third position, chuuken, is normally filled by someone with experience. While I hadn't participated in too many official matches, I had participated in and won several practice matches. Apparently Mori had some expectations for me when it came to the competition seeing as it was sometimes the case that the chuuken won the match for the team. If the first and second positions won their rounds, then the chuuken winning could secure the win for the entire team since three wins were all that were required in the team event.

Fukusho, the fourth position, is a similar position. They are the second to last player on the team and have to be strong mentally, even if the first three have already lost the tournament. The fukusho is still expected to fight their hardest no matter the current score. The last position, taishou, is normally referred to as the captain of a participating team. They're often the ones that set either how the match is remembered, or even the pace of the next match if the team won their current one.

The only position that I wasn't sure about was the fukusho, but surely if the man had been chosen as vice-captain, he had to have some skills to show for it.

"Mori~Mori~ I've arrived~!"

A sinking feeling settled in my chest.

"Mori~ are you telling them about the thing~?" the cheery voice continued to call out.

"Fujii-niisan!" Arai greeted him, waving his hand as he had done when trying to call me over. "I get to be senpo!"

"Ha, that was my position when I was a first year!" Fujii replied immediately.

I hadn't turned back to look at him, so when he reached us and stood next to me I was surprised. The man stood even taller than Mori and looked to made completely of muscle. His blonde hair fell just past his ears, and pinned back so that it was out of his green eyes. Much to my surprise, the pin was in the shape of a butterfly. To top it off, despite his being late, he still wasn't dressed in his kendo outfit.

Put it all together, and you got the exact opposite of what I'd expect out of our vice-captain. I was actually surprised that I hadn't noticed him running around the dojo before. Despite my normal habit of not taking note of people who didn't concern me, I should have noticed someone who stood out as much as he did.

"Congratulations, Ayumu, you're slowly getting closer to me," Fujii continued, stepping away from where he stood so that he could wrap his arm around Arai's neck. He then immediately began rubbing the top of Arai's head with his other hand. "You're still so short, though!"

Arai complained loudly, which just caused Fujii to begin laughing. Throughout this entire exchange, Mori and I simply stood in our respective spots and watched. The girl, whose surname was Kinjo according to Mori's explanation, had slowly begun to turn red. Once Fujii released Arai and stepped back so that he was standing between her and I, I learned the reason.

"Uh… um… F-fujii-senpai… I… I'm the j-jihou," she murmured, her entire face going red. "I… um… am really happy to-"

Fujii cut her off as he started laughing and draped an arm over her shoulders.

"Good, good, I suggested you, so I'm glad you like it."

With those simple words practically everything I saw of her head turned red, including her ears.

"I-I do!"

Thankfully, I was saved from having to experience any more of this mess by Mori beginning his explanation about everything we needed to know. It was a small invitation-only tournament that only had around sixteen schools participating. We'd been notified on short notice, seeing as it was set for this weekend. It seemed that one of the previously invited schools had dropped out last minute, giving us the chance to take part. The school itself was quite a distance away, hence the reason we hadn't been invited initially.

We would all be expected to be here the morning of the tournament by five in the morning.

My only thoughts that continued to run through my mind as I listened to all of this was that Uncle would be happy and that maybe I should make something to bring to the tournament. I'd always brought something to help me relax when I had big gymnastic competitions and it seemed Mori didn't mind the way I fixed things…

* * *

The morning of the tournament found me sitting just inside the dojo, although enough to the side of the door that I wouldn't be in the other team members ways when they came in. My uniform had been carefully folded and tucked inside a bag I had thrown over my shoulders, and my sword was sticking out of the top of the bag, carefully balanced between two zippers. The book that I was currently interested in was tucked between my knees. However, the items that held the most of my concern out of all of these things were sitting next to me. The first was a plastic box with a clip on lid. Inside of it were a variety of sweets, ranging from my level of sweetness to ones that were almost completely bitter.

It wasn't like I'd made the bitter ones just because of Arai's comment about the others being too sweet, however. It was just because I didn't think that I'd be wanting sweet things the entire tournament. When I'd brought up the idea of sweets to my Uncle, it'd resulted in the other box sitting next to the one full of sweets. If I was going to bring snacks to help out the team he said I should also bring sliced lemons in honey.

I was surprised to discover that he had nothing against me cooking my own things. Apparently it went along with Uncle's belief that despite our status, we should continue to do as much as we could for ourselves. Even though our household had a cook, he had asked her to give me an entire evening in the kitchen on my own.

Sometimes he resembled the uncle I remember from before my parents died and he took me in. The less strict version of him that I had always loved to visit.

"Senpai!"

Why did he have to be the first one to arrive?

"Senpai, you're the first one?" Arai Ayumu continued, his voice just as excited and energetic as it had been during practice all week.

Without waiting for my answer to the question, Ayumu dropped himself down next to me, careful not to upset the plastic boxes that held the snacks.

"What's in those? Cookies again? Are they like the last ones?" he asked, not giving me the chance to get a word in edgewise. "Not that it's a bad thing if they are, because those were really good, even if they were really sweet, and I'd love to eat more. Even if they aren't as sweet as last time, though, I'll eat them. I might even eat more of th-"

"Arai-san," I said, cutting him off. My hands had forgone holding my book in favor of rubbing my temples. "Do you really have to talk this much so early in the morning?"

"Oh, sorry Senpai! Really sorry! Did I give you a headache? Okaasan always says I talk too much, but I never realize when I'm doing it. You probably aren't a morning person, are you Senpai? I know a few people who aren't. Fujii-niisan is one of the few people I know who is like me in the morning. When Okaasan first met him she almost fainted. She up and said that if I brought home a third version of me she was going to kick me out before I could say gomen! So-"

"Arai-san!"

I peeked through my hands in time to see his sheepish look.

"Sorry."

I took that blessed moment of silence that followed as a chance to study him. Arai's raven black hair was cut rather short, but there were still a few bangs that somehow managed to reach just above his pale blue eyes. His clothing was a mix-match of different bright-colored items, something that seemed to be usual for him. I'd caught him several times this week walking out after practice with something on that I wouldn't caught dead in. I think he'd even been wearing neon pink at one point. This time, however, it was a sunshine yellow tank-top with a white one hanging out beneath it and light green jeans.

I would've loved to know in what world he'd grown his fashion sense.

The only thing that actually made sense about his style was the fact that the tank-top showed off his muscles, which were rather compact. It didn't do much to help his figure, however, seeing as he was surprisingly the same height as I was.

"Hey, Morioka-senpai?" he asked after a few minutes had passed.

"Yes?"

"Why are you wearing black?"

I felt my hold over my temper begin to loosen slightly.

"To match my soul," I answered sarcastically.

"Oh."

I looked at him in disbelief as the kid gave a slow nod.

"That was a joke," I told him, and watched as he turned pink.

"I knew that," he replied instantly.

"Really?"

"Well… um…" he began, now looking flustered. "Of course! Cause… Senpai is a nice person!"

At that moment a bag was dropped on Ayumu's head.

"Did I walk in on a confession?"

I glared up at the newcomer, only to discover that it wasn't just him. Standing behind him were both Kinjo and Mori.

"N-no!" Ayumu sputtered, pulling Fujii's bag into his lap. "Of course n-not! I don't like Morioka-senpai!"

A grin appeared on Fujii's face as he leaned down closer to Ayumu.

"Oh? So you like someone else, then, do you?" he teased.

"N-no!"

"Ah, she must not be very pretty for you to deny her so easily."

"Chie-senpai is extremely pretty!" Ayumu argued, freezing the moment that he realized what he'd said.

So that's why Ayumu had begun speaking to me so often during club hours, I realized. Watching as his face flooded with color, I found myself more amused than irritated over the discovery. Chie and his personalities were rather similar, I could actually see them as a rather cute couple.

"Chie, is it?" Fujii asked, his entire face lighting up. "I'll have to remember that."

"No! No need to remember, Fujii-niisan, feel free to forget!"

Taking this time to grab my things, I pulled myself to my feet and made sure I had everything I came with. I then stepped around the now stammering Ayumu and teasing Fujii so that I stood by Mori and Kinjo.

"Good morning, Mori, Kinjo-san."

Mori nodded in return.

"Morioka-san."

"Good morning, Morioka-senpai," Kinjo replied, then hesitated for a moment before offering a shy smile. "You can call me K-kaede-chan if you want. Everyone in my class does."

I offered her the best smile I could manage at this time of morning, which might not have been a smile at all.

"I'll keep that in mind, Kaede-chan."

At that same moment, I heard a thud and a triumphant shout from the duo behind me. Glancing behind me, I found Ayumu sprawled on the ground with Fujii's right foot on his chest.

"Now that, that's settled," Fujii declared happily. "Let's get going!"

I had the feeling this was going to be a long trip.

"Takashi! Takashi! Am I late?!" a voice came calling from the hall.

"Mitsukuni," Mori said, turning away from the rest of us. "We are in here."

A second later Honey popped in, trailed by the other members of the host club.

It was going to be an extremely long trip.

**A/N: So, to help with understanding the positions, I thought I'd just add this little tidbit of information (actually, you can thank my beta reader for that, she suggested it). The positions, starting with the first one that was named and ending with the last, simply name the order that they perform in. Meaning that Arai will go first, then Kaede, Nao, Fujii, and finally Mori. **


	8. Chapter 8

Because buses were apparently not good enough for our little group, we somehow all ended up boarding a private plane for what would have only been a three-hour drive. It was a relief to me to discover that at least I wasn't the only one participating that wasn't a morning person. Kyoya was actually slung over Tamaki's back when they showed up in the dojo. Even now, he was fast asleep in one of the plane seats.

Haruhi also seemed to be sleeping, although from the looks the twins gave me when I questioned this, I wondered if she'd been brought by choice. What surprised me even further was that she was dressed like a girl for once. Perhaps she didn't plan on cross-dressing today?

Much to my annoyance, I soon realized that the rest of the host club happened to be just as energetic in the morning as they were any other time of day. In an attempt to escape this, I'd chosen a seat at the back of the plane, and while Honey and Mori joined me back there, I was relieved to find that Honey was content to leave me alone and chatter with Mori.

Or he was for the first part of the hour-long plane trip.

About midway through, Honey switched from sitting next to Mori to sitting next to me and leaning over the seat when he wanted to talk to Mori. When this switch first happened, I was still able to concentrate on my book while running through kendo techniques in my mind. That was only at first, however.

"Nao-chan~, what's in the boxes?" Honey asked, startling me.

I stopped turning the page I'd been focusing on and looked over at him. He was grinning at me with that smile that reminded me so much of Akihiko.

"Sweets in one," I answered before the thought had even made it to my mind. "The other one has lemon slices soaked in honey."

Honey's face lit up.

"I brought sweets, too!" he said. "I brought your favorite cake so we can celebrate when you guys win. It's Mori's favorite, too, so I brought lots of it. What did you bring?"

He eagerly reached for the box and I slipped it out from under the other so that he could take it. Within a second he had it open and was sorting through the different things in the box. It wasn't until he'd picked up a chocolate ball and was about to put it in his mouth that I remembered that not everything in it was sweet.

"Wait-" I began, holding out a hand to take it from him.

I was too late, however, and Honey had already dropped the chocolate in his mouth. The expression that crossed his face in that moment was too much. Before I knew it, I was laughing. There was another sound in that moment, however, that surprised me enough to cause me to go silent. As I looked at the source, I didn't bother to conceal my amazement.

Had Mori just laughed? It was only for a moment… but…

"That's not sweet!" Honey declared, catching my attention. There were tears welling up in his eyes.

"Sorry, Honey…" I began, putting an apologetic look on my face. "I was going to warn you…"

In all honesty, I wanted to keep laughing. The image of his face when he tasted the chocolate was still in my mind. It was such a surprised and bitter looking expression that it just refused to get out of my head. I could see why it even got Mori to laugh.

"I didn't think sweets like I fix them would be good to fill the entire box with," I told him, continuing in my apology.

After he'd heard that part, the tears immediately disappeared in favor of a happy smile.

"I get it!" he declared happily. "Nao-chan made bitter and less sweet sweets so that everyone could be happy and have some!"

That caught the attention of most of the actually awake people in our group.

"N-no," I got out, looking away so that the heat in my cheeks would disappear. "I just didn't feel like making everything sweet, that's all."

"Okay, if that's what you say," Honey replied with a giggle. He then shifted in his seat so that his head peeked over the seats in front of us. "Nao-chan made sweets for everyone!"

"H-hey!" I said, keeping my voice low so only he would hear me. "I didn't say that."

"She's a good cook," Honey continued. "You all should try some."

"Honey!"

As the others made their way to where we were sitting, Honey just gave me a happy smile while putting a finger up to his lips.

"Shh, it's good for you. You should be more truthful with people, Nao-chan, you'll make more friends that way," he told me.

I couldn't help the sullen expression that probably appeared on my face at that moment.

"I don't need more friends," I muttered, my tone sounding rebellious even to me.

Honey just grinned. The others reached us at that moment and began happily picking through my box and asking questions about the different sweets. Slowly and reluctantly, I began answering their questions and accepting their compliments that followed.

* * *

"There are so many people!" Honey exclaimed.

By the time we had made it to the school, many others had begun to fill into campus. The plane ride had taken an hour, and according to the information we'd been provided, the registration was from seven till eight, so we still had another hour till it started.

This is why I didn't understand taking the plane.

"Perfect!" Tamaki declared once we'd found where the registration table was and headed back outside. "The amount of time between now and then is perfect!"

"Tamaki-senpai…?" Ayumu asked, looking confused. "What do you mean?"

I was surprised to see that he was actually paying attention to what the host club was discussing, seeing as ever since Fujii had showed up, Ayumu had been practically glued to his side. I'd discovered the reason for this in those few days between the announcement and now, seeing as I figured I needed to learn a little about my teammates. Fujii, whose first name I had yet to discover, was Ayumu's neighbor. They'd grown up around each other, and apparently up until recently Ayumu had followed Fujii practically everywhere. That was also the reason that Ayumu had joined the Kendo team.

A moment later I discovered why Ayumu was paying attention to Tamaki. Fujii had stepped away from the group to make a phone call. The look on his face caused me to instantly be on guard. Fujii looked too pleased with himself for him to be planning anything good.

"I mean, we're going to see all the tourist sites!" Tamaki declared.

The twins gave him a look like the one I wanted to give him.

"Tono…" one of them began.

"Does a town this small even have tourist sites?" the other finished.

Tamaki looked indignant as he tore a book out who knows where.

"Look! It has popular restaurants and shrines!"

Were we really going to tour restaurants and shrines for an hour?

"Tamaki-senpai…" Haruhi said, looking annoyed. "Is that the real reason you brought all of us?"

Haruhi had woken up shortly before we landed. When she realized that we were completely out-of-town she wasn't that happy. As these thoughts ran through my mind, something began nagging me. Were we forgetting something?

"Of course not!" he replied instantly. "I wanted to watch Nao-senpai and Mori compete!"

When had I and Tamaki been on first name basis?

"Of course not…" Haruhi repeated, looking rather disbelieving.

It was then that I realized what the nagging feeling was. We were short one person.

"Um…" I began, catching most of the group's attention. "What happened to Ootori-kun?"

We spent our free hour calling back the plane, discovering that Kyoya had already gotten off, then chasing down his exact location. Needless to say, he was not in a pleasant mood by the time we located him. Tamaki also ended up not getting to have his tour of the town that he'd planned out. After everything was sorted out and everyone calmed down, we made it back to the school in time to register for our rounds and receive a copy of the bracket.

"Aren't we missing someone again?" I asked as we were walking away from the table.

The entire group stopped and looked at me. Was I seriously the only one who had noticed, again?

"Fujii-san isn't with us," I pointed out.

"Fujii-niisan?!" Ayumu exclaimed.

I almost regretted pointing it out after seeing how quickly Ayumu descended into panic.

"Don't worry!" Honey spoke up. "Well find him!"

"Found him," the twins declared a second later before we'd even had the chance to start looking.

Everyone looked to see where they were pointing, in time to discover Fujii walking our way, with one perky, dressed up brunette beside him.

No wonder he'd looked so pleased with himself when he was on the phone earlier.

"Nao-chan~!" Chie called out. "I've come to watch your competition!"

Within a moment she'd run to my side. Without waiting for any words of greeting on my end, she leaned in extremely close and whispered in my ear.

"Fujii-kun said that one of the team members liked me!"

Things were just turning out wonderfully.

* * *

"First match is Arai Ayumu of Ouran High School vs. Yuhara Isao of Tokyo South," the announcer called out.

Ayumu immediately hopped up from our seated position to the side of the match area. Above us I could hear the chattering of people in balcony. I was rather relieved when I realized this school was set up in a professional manner for the tournament. The competitors areas were set in the center of a room that had a balcony surrounding it on all sides, which was the area given to the spectators. The team members each had a bench on opposite sides of the room. The referees along with the scoreboards were settled to the center of the right side of the area the match would take place inside of.

As Ayumu walked to meet with his opponent, I felt anticipation beginning to build in my chest. As much as I disliked the idea of having to depend on the entire team in order to advance, I was too happy to be participating in an official match. There were only two matches between now and the time when I'd be standing where Ayumu currently was.

"Go, Arai-san! Fight!"

If only the spectators hadn't included the damn host club.

Ayumu's opponent, Isao, didn't seem to mind the cheering, thankfully. He simply raised his head to stare into the balcony, as if curious why the cheering had already started when the match hadn't even begun. Arai on the other hand seemed to turn tense, his hands taking a tighter grip on his sword.

"How many official matches has Arai participated in?" I asked, uneasiness sparking in me at the sight of how nervous he seemed to have become.

Next to me, Fujii scratched his neck while appraising the scene with a thoughtful look.

"Well, he's been fighting me since we were kids…" Fujii began, then his expression turned from thoughtful to sheepish. "I honestly don't know."

That uneasy feeling grew to outright worry as the head referee called out the beginning of the match.

"Meaning there's the possibility of this being his first?" I ventured to ask.

No matter how good he was, if this was his first match there was always the chance of his nerves getting the better of him. The senpo's job was important, if he lost there was the chance we'd have a hard time recovering from it. However, when he heard my question Fujii looked startled.

"Oh, no, that's not it," he answered. "I just don't think I could count them all!"

"What?"

"Great job, Arai-kun!"

Honey's voice caught my attention and I turned my startled gaze away from Fujii in time to see Arai returning to the starting position. His score board already read two points.

"Consecutive hits?" I wondered aloud.

"Ayumu-kun's a really good senpo," was all Fujii gave me in return.

I watched amazed as Arai kept his opponent from scoring a single point on him. As the match came to an end and Arai bowed before removed his mask, I caught sight of the triumphant grin on his face. From the balcony above I could hear the entire club cheering, well, minus a few voices that I would have been shocked to hear yelling like that- meaning Haruhi and Kyoya.

My only thought in that moment was that I would have to change my opinion of Arai. He was a very dangerous person and we were all lucky that his temper seemed to be non-existent.

"Well, that result was the least I would expect from him," Fujii said suddenly and next to him I saw Mori nod his agreement. "That kid almost beat me last time we sparred, I'd be disappointed if he got beat here."

Wait, he almost beat him?

"He almost beat you?" I asked, echoing my thought.

Fujii shot me an amused grin.

"Yeah, almost. He hasn't managed to do that once as of yet."

Fujii said that he and Ayumu had been sparing since they were kids… what sort of swordsman was he?! I wondered to myself. Beyond that, how is it that Ayumu hasn't once beat me in practice? Is he the sort that does better in the real thing?

"Fujii-niisan! You saw that, right?" Ayumu demanded excitedly as he reached the bench. "Right? Did I do good?"

Fujii laughed and stood up to lock his arm around Ayumu's shoulders.

"You did great."

"The second match will soon begin. The match is Kinjo Kaede of Ouran High School vs. Murakami Toshio of Tokyo South."

My eyes shot to where Kinjo had been sitting, further down the bench than the rest of us. I instantly froze as I realized how hard she was shaking. Her eyes seemed just as determined as ever, but her entire form seemed off as she went to stand in place.

"Kaede-chan, however," Fujii said, suddenly turning his attention away from praising Ayumu to continuing explaining things to me. "Has never participated in an actual match."

_What?_

Catching the expression on my face, Fujii started laughing.

"No worries, no worries! Kaede-chan may have joined the club so she could spend more time with me, but I wouldn't recommend her if she didn't have the skills to back up the position," he assured me, then paused for a moment, his grin turning into the sort of smile I would have expected to see on Kyoya. "Besides, even if she loses, we can count on you to win your match, right Nao-chan?"

I couldn't help the irritation that appeared with his comment.

"And then you'll take the final win," I muttered.

"Of course!" Fujii replied immediately. "Isn't it fitting for such a guy as me? Imagine this, Kaede-chan loses and feels depressed, wondering if she's just cost her team the chance to continue in the tournament. Then you take the stage and barely manage to take your opponent, making our score two wins to one loss. Then, like a hero, I take my match amazingly and effortlessly."

Here a large grin appeared on his face while my irritation began to skyrocket.

"Wouldn't my little Kaede-chan be grateful? I bet she'd even be willing to spend our free time once we return home with me!"

My initial impression of this guy was right, I decided. I simply could not, and would not, be able to understand him.

"Kinjo will win."

The calm voice startled me and caused my eyes to dart to Mori. He was calmly watching Kaede, his eyes not holding a hint of doubt. Curious, I turned my gaze to her as well, just in time to catch her sliding on her mask and moving into a shaky stance. I winced when I realized just how far off that was from her normal position.

"Goodluck, Kae-chan!"

Apparently Honey had already decided to jump to first name basis.

"Relax, princess, you'll do great!"

Why the hell did they bring him?

The referee called out the beginning of the match and my hands in clenched into fists in my lap. The first competition was always the hardest, not to mention the fact that she had her moronic senpai over here watching. I didn't have a doubt in my mind about Kaede's feelings towards Fujii, which also left the realization that she would most likely be looking to impress him.

Her opponent made the first move, thankfully. I was fully aware that Kaede felt most comfortable with defending and retaliating rather than attacking herself. It'd become obvious to me over the days we'd practiced together before the tournament. There were quite a few times I'd actually fallen into the trap myself, before learning that if I waited for her to attack then I'd easily win.

Toshio, not knowing this, fell just as I'd done the first time. Although it wasn't as impressive as Ayumu's first score, the two for one, I felt myself relax as Kaede's relationation was put up as a point. Perhaps she'd be able to do this.

When they returned to their original positions, however, and I saw the stance Kaede took, my relief instantly disappeared. Instead of her normal relaxed stance, or even the shaky one she'd taken up before the first hit, she'd taken on an offensive stance similar to Ayumu's. Despite his words earlier, I noticed that Fujii instantly frowned beside me and let a curse out under his breath.

She was being too hasty.

As we all expected, the next point went to her opponent. Toshio easily defended against the attack and scored a point in a similar fashion to her first one. After that Kaede seemed to panic and in the end self-destructed. The match went to the other team, just as Fujii had initially said it would.

The previous cheers of the host club had turned into simple encouraging words. Kaede didn't seem to notice as she slowly made her way back to our bench and sat down. I almost wondered if I imagined it, but it seemed to be me she was shaking even harder than when she first went up. I didn't have long to think about it, however, as I suddenly realized what this meant.

I was next.

"The third match will begin soon. This match will be Morioka Nao of Ouran High School vs. Ishikawa Yumi of Tokyo South."

I stood, grabbing my mask and slipping it on. My mind began to focus on the opponent, taking in every detail that could possibly help me.

My opponent was a girl, at least there wouldn't be the disadvantage of a man's height and strength working against me. I didn't recognize the name, so she most likely wasn't someone that had enough skill to draw tons of attention to herself. Her teammates seemed relaxed, though, and she is in the same position as I, so she must have some skill to speak for her.

"Good luck, Nao-chan!"

Startled, I looked up into the balcony. Directly above where we had sat I could see all the host club members. I shouldn't have been surprised, after all, I'd been hearing their voices for quite some time now. Tamaki was standing in the center of the group, grinning and giving me a thumbs up. Haruhi was standing next to him with an encouraging smile. The twins were on the other side of Tamaki, and seemed to be questioning Honey who, after calling good luck, seemed to be answering their questions. Chie stood next to Haruhi, looking both interested and confused about everything that was going on.

As I was about to turn away and face my opponent, another figure caught my eye. Around five feet away from where the host club stood, there was a tall, auburn haired boy. At a glance he seemed to either be a third or second year and had muscles that I wouldn't have expected of a kendo competitor. What had caught my attention, however, were how hard his hands were gripping the railing and how irritated the expression on his face seemed to be.

It was strange.

Shaking it off, I turned to face my opponent. There was no need to worry about some spectator right now. Instead, I needed to focus on winning my match.

"Onegai shimasu."

**A/N: Onegai shimasu is a saying traditionally used when facing a new opponent in kendo. It is one of the things signifying the start of a match, as well as the referee giving the signal.**


	9. Chapter 9

She had average skill.

When the match started, I was uncertain and cautious. As such, I waited for her to attack first. Not seeming to care, Yumi moved forward and aimed her sword in a bodily strike, which was rather easy to match and slide off course. The moment our swords caught each other, I could feel the strength behind the strike, which to my surprise wasn't much.

Either she was going easy on me or her physical strength was low.

Behind me I could hear the club cheering. Forcing myself to focus, I quickly shifted my sword in a counter attack, pushing it forward to strike at her chest while her own sword was still caught on mine. Yumi stepped back, easily avoiding the movement.

Her footwork wasn't bad at all.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw the referees waving their flags below the waist. No valid points had been scored. Relaxing my sword, I walked back to the starting point and resumed my practiced starting stance. I noted at that moment that Yumi still seemed very relaxed, there was no hesitation or shaky movements as she also prepared for the referee to signal the beginning of this point.

When he had, I moved forward, deciding to test her defense. Once she was in striking distance, I raised my sword in a swift cut towards her upper shoulder. Instead of blocking the cut, she avoided it by using a quick turn that put her out of the way. Not giving her a chance to recover from the movement, I simply lunged forward in a strike similar to the one I'd attempted on her in our initial attacks. This time she couldn't avoid it and I felt my sword hit the armor around her collarbone.

Red flags came up signaling my point.

When we began again this time, Yumi immediately attacked. At first the movements were easy to block, but they became progressively harder. It became clear to me that her speed made up for her lack of physical strength. Just as I thought that I'd get the chance to strike, she'd bring her sword forward for another attack. It seemed that while I was testing her, she'd been testing me as well.

The exchange ended when she scored a hit on my right wrist. Despite the armor, I could feel pain spike up my arm. I'd never felt so thankful for the mask, it kept people from seeing how much the point had hurt.

As we walked back to our starting points I flexed my wrist attempting to ignore the pain that came from each little movement. This was the sort of situation in which my lack of experience showed. I knew mentally that when an attack was coming towards the inside of your wrist, you twist it to make the sword hit the outside instead. It reduced the chance of injury. In practice, however, it was much harder to remember such things. As quickly as she was moving I could only do what my body had practiced, the movements that were so beat into it that I could move without thought.

No amount of practice can stand up to having an opponent right in front of you.

The referees signaled the point to be hers. The next point would mean the end of our fight.

I brought my sword up into my beginning stance. My wrist continued to throb, but I pushed it from my mind. If I won here we stood a better chance at moving to the next stage of the tournament. Although, I guess with Fujii and Mori behind me there was very little chance that even if I did lose that we wouldn't progress.

Running these thoughts through my mind, I forced myself to relax.

"You can do it, Nao-chan!" a very familiar voice called out. "And when you win I bet Takashi will let us eat cake to celebrate! Let's eat strawberry!"

For a moment I almost lost my stance. My free hand came up to my mask instinctively, seeing as if it hadn't been there I would have covered my mouth to hide the snickering his words caused.

Of course Honey was thinking of cake at a moment like this. If he didn't doubt I could win, why should I?

We were signaled to begin, and I darted forward, pushing my pain to the back of my mind. Before she could attack, I swung my sword at a lower body attack. Surprised, Yumi barely managed to step back. The movement put her off balance, giving me a chance to swing at the same spot on the other side. This time she brought her sword down to counter. Without a second of thought, I shifted my stance and swung my sword up. A satisfied smile reached my lips as the sword hit the lower side of her arm with a nice thump.

The final point was mine.

I broke away from her as the referees waved the red flag. My eyes darted away from them to where the club stood in the balcony. To my surprise my eyes were met with grinning faces and cheers.

"Good job, Nao-chan!"

"You won!"

"Great job!"

For a moment I forgot that I was supposed to be walking back to the bench. I could only stare up at them. How long had it been since I'd had a reaction like that when I won a competition? Even as this ran through my mind, for some reason I didn't know, my gaze shifted over to where the auburn-haired boy had been standing before.

Unlike when my eyes found the host club, this boy wasn't cheering. If anything, he looked pissed.

"Morioka-senpai!"

Startled, I tore my eyes away from him and looked to our bench. Ayumu was grinning and even Kaede held a small smile. As I rejoined them I was shocked to suddenly have the first year sling his arms around me in a hug.

"You did great!"

I couldn't move. Ayumu was actually hugging me?

He released his arms a second later with a sheepish smile, seeming to realize that I wasn't that appreciative of the contact. That smile almost immediately went back to a grin as he remembered his original point.

"I got worried when she scored on you, but you didn't get hurt! You're amazing, senpai!"

You didn't get hurt…

His words brought the pain back to the front of my mind, making me realize just how much worse it hurt than before. I guess it hadn't appreciated the stress put on it from my final movements for the finishing point.

Fujii suddenly relaxed his left arm on the top of Ayumu's head as he studied me. He then gave me a grin similar to the one Ayumu held.

"Didn't I tell you that it would end up like this?" he ask cheerily. "You barely managed to pull off a win and now it's up to me to be a hero and finish things off! Be glad your vice-captain is such a reliable guy. You can sit down and relax because I'll handle everything."

If I hadn't left my mask on I would have kept away my resulting scowl. How did he get off with having such a huge ego?

"The fourth match will begin soon. The match is Fujii Kana of Ouran High School vs. Suzuki Akio of Tokyo South."

I had reached up to remove my mask when the announcement began and almost dropped it in surprise. My entire face probably showed my amusement, because Fujii scowled immediately. Ayumu on the other hand suddenly looked very interested in the opponent that Fujii would be facing instead of Fujii himself.

"Kana?" I questioned, unable to help myself.

"It means powerful!" Fujii declared. "It's not a girl's name! Not even close to one!"

No wonder even Ayumu, as close as he was to Fujii, used his surname instead of his first. It seemed the egotistical boy was self-conscious of his feminine name.

"Of course it does."

"Dammit!" Fujii muttered, removing his arm from Ayumu's head. "It's just a name, you know."

He then turned around and seized his helmet from the bench. A bit of guilt pricked at me, but not enough for me to say anything. He might have helped me during the first two matches, however that didn't make up for the fact his ego was rather annoying.

Once had his sword in his hand, Fujii turned back to face me, pointing in my direction with his free hand.

"Don't tell a soul," he ordered. "It's not like anyone needs to call me by that name anyways!"

He then turned and walked out to face his opponent. It wasn't until this moment that Ayumu looked back at me, that sheepish smile of his in place.

"Fujii-niisan doesn't like his name."

I gathered that much.

Shaking my head, I took a seat on the bench, tucking my helmet beside me and placing my throbbing wrist in my lap. The entire time this conversation had been going on, Mori had remained seated and silent. Now that Fujii was gone and I was sitting next to him, he finally spoke up.

"You did well."

I was startled enough that I didn't immediately realize it was him who'd spoken. When I did, however, I simply put on what I figured was an appropriate smile and aimed it in his direction.

"Thanks."

Silence stretched between us for a moment and I took that as my cue to look to where Fujii was waiting for his match to begin.

"Mitsukuni will be happy."

I hesitated, then looked back to him.

"He said we'd have cake to celebrate if I won," I said.

I could have sworn I saw amusement cross his normally stoic expression.

"If we have time."

* * *

To no one's surprise, both Fujii and Mori won their matches, advancing our little team to the next round. After a short celebration, which included Fujii turning Ayumu's head into a mess of ruffled hair and turning Kaede's face burning red, we all began to gather our things together. Our next round was in a different practice room.

I'll admit that it was about this time when I started to get worried. It took all I could to keep the grimace from my face when I grabbed my sword. Forget my wrist throbbing, it was burning, sending sharp pains up my arm every time I moved it. For a girl with little physical strength, Yumi hit hard.

Once we had our things moved to the next room and were about to go meet up with the host club I excused myself with the excuse of needing to use the bathroom. Our next round wasn't starting for another hour so I grabbed my normal clothing to take along with me. It would be annoying to run around in my kendo uniform for the entire time, and it also gave me something to hide the cloth bandage I'd pulled from the first aid kit. After getting directions from one of the tournament workers, I located the bathroom and set my clothing on the counter.

Carefully, as to not cause myself any more pain than I had to, I pulled off my gloves and pushed up the cloth covering my arms. The area around my wrist had swelled up considerably and the place the sword hit had already turned into a rather dark bruise. I'd been involved in sports long enough to know that these were signs I should probably keep from using the hand and withdraw from the tournament to see a doctor.

Uncle would be mad. He'd been pleased to hear that I was invited to be part of this team. If I caused the team to have to withdraw…

"Morioka-senpai?"

Startled, I glanced towards the door. Haruhi stood just inside the doorway looking rather surprised. A second later her eyes caught sight of my wrist and her mouth opened in a silent 'oh'. Pushed into action, I swiftly pulled down my sleeve and picked up my clothing with my free hand.

"I was going to change," I informed her and turned to face one of the stalls.

She didn't say anything at first which allowed me to enter the stall and lock it behind me. I'd begun to take off the different parts of my uniform when she finally decided what to say.

"Have you told Mori?"

"No."

"Did anyone notice?"

"No."

Haruhi fell silent, taking those two bits of information in. Careful not to move my wrist more than needed, I managed to remove everything and pull on my dress. Instead of putting on my jacket right away, I exited the stall and sat my uniform on the counter. Haruhi's eyes seemed to settle on my wrist again the moment that it came into view.

"It could be broken," she said, sounding rather concerned.

"I don't think so," I replied while pulling the cloth bandage from its place in my jacket. "My opponent didn't have much strength to her hits."

"She was fast," Haruhi countered after a moment. "Couldn't that make up for it? And those swords look heavy."

I didn't have anything to say to that, so I just started wrapping my wrist. Haruhi watched for a moment then stepped forward, holding out her hands.

"Let me."

It was obvious that my one-handed job wasn't working that well. After only a second of hesitation I handed it over to her and watched as she carefully wrapped my wrist, making sure the bandage was tight and secure.

"You can't compete with it like this," she said when finished.

"I can."

"It looks really painful," she argued. "The others won't get mad at you if you have to pull out. They'll be disappointed, but I think they'd be more upset if you hurt yourself further by continuing. What if it really is broken? You could make the break worse."

I shook my head.

I couldn't do that. After I'd finally managed to make Uncle happy over something I'd done, how could I give up after a little thing like this?

"I'll tell."

Shocked, I focused all of my attention on Haruhi.

"What?"

Her face showed nothing but determination.

"I'll tell them. You're going to hurt yourself," she said slowly, as if to make sure that her words were sinking in. "It'd be dumb to fight like this."

"I can still fight!" I said instantly. "You saw how easily I got that last point, right? I can do this! Please, don't tell anyone. I can't forfeit."

Surprise took the place of her determination. I was fully aware of the fact my voice had broken with the last words. I couldn't do anything about that, though. The surprise soon gave way to hesitation.

"Why?" Haruhi asked.

I flinched.

"If you don't want me to tell everyone, you must have a good reason. Why?"

My reason was a simple one, but one that I was certain wouldn't keep her from telling the others.

"I'll tell you… afterwards," I muttered after a moment. "If we don't get moving now, they're going to be suspicious."

With that I grabbed my jacket and carefully pulled it on, making sure that the long sleeves covered my bandaged wrist. Haruhi looked like she was going to argue with me, but after a second she sighed and nodded.

"Fine, but if it looks worse after the next round, or you seem to be struggling, I'm going to tell," Haruhi said, giving in.

Relief shot through me.

"Thanks, I really appreciate this," I replied and gathered my uniform with my good arm. "I'm going to go ahead and go back to everyone, you do whatever it is you needed to do."

Haruhi nodded and headed into one of the stalls as I started out of the bathroom. As I turned in the direction I'd need to go, however, I found myself hitting something solid and sprawling backwards on the floor. A hiss of pain escaped my lips as I started to get back up and put too much pressure on my wrist.

"Morioka Nao, wasn't it?"

My eyes shot up to the voice and found a hand offered towards me. Reluctant, but knowing that was the only way I was easily getting up, I grabbed his hand with my free one. The stranger pulled me to my feet then bent over to grab my uniform from where it'd ended up on the floor. It was then that I realized this auburn-haired stranger was the same one I'd seen watching our match. The guy who'd looked so pissed.

This close to him I was able to get a better look at him. His auburn hair laid in messy strands around his his face, although it wasn't long enough that it would get in the way during a match. His eyes were a dark shade of green and his skin a very pale color. He had changed from his earlier casual clothing into a traditional kendo uniform that seemed completely natural on him.

"Uh...yeah," I replied, taking my uniform when he offered it to me. "Thanks."

"Don't thank me," he said, offering a good-natured smile. "I'm the one who knocked you down in the first place, it was the least I could do."

I hesitated, then gave him one of my practiced smiles as a response.

"You did well in your match," the boy continued, then paused for a moment, a rueful look appearing on his face. "Although it seems that you took a hard hit, didn't you?"

I couldn't breathe.

"Who're you?" I demanded, attempting to keep my sudden wariness from my voice.

The boy simply gave me a different sort of smile, somewhere between his original good-natured one and something different, something that sent a shiver down my spine.

"Oh, I'm sorry. I'm the captain of one of the participating teams, Kimura Ren. Perhaps my team will face yours sometime today…" he answered, then put an obviously fake, thoughtful look on his face. "Hm, although I suppose it won't be much fun if we do. What with your reaction when you fell just now. It looks like you must be in an awful lot of pain…"

Everything about Ren gave off a bad feeling. My mind switched to how he'd acted during our match, and to the cheerful smile he'd had when he first greeted me. I couldn't help the incredibly strong feeling that he was the worst person to have found out about this.

"Don't worry, though," he added on. "I'll warn my kohai to go easy on you. We wouldn't want something happening to make that little injury worse, would we?"

I was frozen in place as he reached out a hand to ruffle my hair.

"Well, I'll see you later, little Nao-chan. My team's expecting me."

It wasn't until he was completely past me that I managed to turn around. Ren didn't look back once as he cut his way through the competitors and spectators milling around the hall. A few seconds later he was completely out of view.


End file.
